No community spread yet, sero-surveys on: ICMR

NEW DELHI: India has a well defined containment strategy for areas with higher cases of Covid and a sero-prevalence survey is being carried out to track any wider spread of the disease in the community, the ICMR said on Tuesday.


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On community spread in India, ICMR chief Dr Balram Bhargava said, “We have clearcut containment areas. There are red zones which are being tackled and studied. Where prevalence is being studied, sero-prevalence survey is being done. Before that it is not wise to comment on anything else.”

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While the health ministry has maintained that there is no evidence of community transmission, it initiated a population based sero-survey in select districts under ICMR earlier this month. A section of experts has held that insufficient testing has meant that community spread has not been detected. A sero-survey involves testing of blood serum of a group of individuals to monitor trends in the prevalence of coronavirus or SARS-COV-2. Sources in government said there is confidence the disease can be tracked despite movement of migrants and air travel resumption.