A total of 24.19 percent of Punjab’s population has been infected by COVID-19, as per the second Sero-Survey conducted in 12 districts of the state.

Sharing the findings of the survey, conducted among randomly-selected districts and population, the state Health Secretary Hussan Lal informed a high-level meeting, chaired by Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, that a total of 4,678 participants were interviewed and their blood samples collected. Of these, 1,201 tested IgG reactive, of which only 4.03 percent were symptomatic and 95.9 percent were asymptomatic.

Urban areas showed a positive rate of 30.5 percent, while the rural areas reported 21 percent positivity.

Ludhiana, with 54.6 percent total positivity and 71.7 percent urban positivity, was found to be the worst hit, followed by Ferozepur, Jalandhar, and SAS Nagar (Mohali). Female positivity was found to be higher in both urban and rural areas.

Each district was assigned the task of completing a sample size of 400, with 200 from rural areas and 200 from urban areas.

The Government has decided to conduct the second sero survey to find the extent of spread of SARS CoV-2 outside the containment zones, in contrast with the first sero-survey that was conducted in five containment zones across five districts.

The first survey conducted in one containment zone each in Patiala, SAS Nagar (Mohali), Ludhiana, Jalandhar, and Amritsar had found 27.8 percent sero prevalence. For the survey, ELISA test has been used to detect IgG antibodies in blood specimen. The sampling scheme and survey method has been adapted from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) sero-survey protocol.