COVID-19: Community-based serosurveillance to soon begin in Vizag

As Andhra Pradesh is inching towards registering 4 lakh coronavirus cases, the state has begun serosurveillance in a few districts. A two-week survey was held earlier in Krishna, East Godavari, Anantapur, and Nellore districts. Closer home in Vizag, the district authorities too, are making necessary arrangements to initiate community-based serosurveillance.

In a conversation with Yo! Vizag, King George Hospital Superintendent, and Andhra Medical College Principal, Dr PV Sudhakar informed that serosurveillance is a method that estimates the presence of antibodies against an infectious disease and measures a population’s immunity to the infection. He added that the survey is likely to begin this week. Speaking about the testing strategy, Dr PV Sudhakar said that in line with Visakhapatnam District Collector, V Vinay Chand’s directive, measures will be taken to test at least 6000 samples in the district per day.

Meanwhile, Vizag reported 846 new COVID-19 cases, taking the district tally to 31,973, on Tuesday. Of the newly reported cases, 271 were detected via the VRDL+Truenat+NACO methods while the remaining 575 were detected via Rapid Antigen tests. According to the report released by Visakhapatnam COVID-19 Special Officer, Dr PV Sudhakar, 5303 patients are receiving treatment and 25,444 individuals have been discharged so far.

The report further stated that six more individuals in Visakhapatnam succumbed to COVID-19 in a span of 24 hours, taking the death toll of the district to 226. As on 25 August, Vizag has 67 very active clusters, 95 active clusters, 576 dormant clusters, and 171 denotified clusters.

Andhra Pradesh, on Tuesday, reported 9927 new coronavirus cases as the tally surged to 3,71,639. East Godavari with 1353, accounted for the major chunk of these freshly detected cases in the state. Chittoor with 967 cases, Nellore with 949 cases, and Guntur with 917 cases followed suit. The death toll increased to 3460.