Covid: In Kerala, Number of people who do not know whether they are affected or not are increasing

Thiruvanathapuram: The ICMR Third Sero survey study points to the rising number of people in Kerala who do not know whether they were affected by Covid or not. The study was conducted in 70 districts of 21 states that included Thrissur, Palakkad and Ernakulam districts of Kerala.

According to the report, 14.5 per cent in Ernakulam, 14.1 per cent in Thrissur and 14.2 per cent in Palakkad were unaware of the disease. According to the first survey of ICMR conducted between May 18-23, the incidence in the state was only 0.8 per cent.

In the second surveillance study conducted from August 24 to 26, the incidence of the disease rose to 0.33 percent. Compared to the first study, the increase was approximately 2.4 times.

At this point, the samples collected in December-January accounted for 14 percent of those who did not know the disease was present or gone. This expansion is outside the government's Covid monitoring system. Sero surveillance tests are used to determine the prevalence of the disease in the community.

An IgG antibody is formed in the body of those who recovered from Covid. The surveillance study looked at how many of these samples had IgG antibody formation. Samples from 400 people with no Covid diffusion were collected from each district. It is estimated that 10 cases are missing in proportion to one case.

Apart from this, special samples are being collected by the Health Department, in all the districts and steps to progress in Sero surveillance are being taken. With the results of this study, we will get a clear picture of the state. The study was conducted in collaboration with a Delhi-based agency.

In a context of high test positivity, the number of tests has increased. If there were 33,579 tests on February 1, this increased to 82,804 on Saturday. Test positivity, which was above 10, has dropped to 7.

On Saturday, Kerala reported 5,942 new Covid-19 cases, while 6,178 persons recovered from the disease in the last 24 hours. At present, 67,543 people are under treatment at different hospitals across the state.

As many as 2,19,050 persons are under observation in the state at present, including 2,08,113 under home/institutional quarantine, while 10,937 persons are under observation at various hospitals in the state.

Thirteen new hotspots were added to the state's tally on Saturday, taking the total number of hotspots in Kerala to 434.