Coronavirus | ICMR-NIN to take up rapid survey for COVID-19 in twin cities hotspots
The NIN director said this programme is being taken up in five containment zones or hotspot clusters selected randomly.
by Special CorrespondentIndian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) - National Institution of Nutrition (NIN) in association with the Telangana government will be taking up rapid survey in five randomly selected containment areas in Hyderabad on May 30 and 31 to monitor the trends of community transmission of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) infection, if any, among the general population, said Director R. Hemalatha on Friday.
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In an official commuinique, the NIN director said this programme is being taken up in five containment zones or hotspot clusters selected randomly and about 500 adults - 100 from each of the clusters, will be chosen to be covered in the study. Hyderabad is among the 13 hotspot cities across the country in 21 States. The ICMR had already completed survey in 69 districts from these hotspots and three within Telangana - Jangoan, Kamareddy and Nalgonda, from where it had collected 1,200 samples few days ago. Results are awaited from the samples collected.
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TS health authorities, district administration of Hyderabad and Rangareddy, Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), district medical personnel and grass-root level functionaries will be supporting the 10 teams and five coordinators from the ICMR-NIN, she explained.
"This is the first phase of the study. ICMR proposes to carry four rounds of surveys in the coming months at different time points in the same rural and urban clusters. This initial phase will serve as a baseline to determine the sero-prevalance of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the community. The subsequent rounds will help us monitor the trends of infection among the population of the select zones. Study findings will be useful to guide in designing and implementing appropriate public health preventive measures," added Dr. Hemalatha.