One percent of the total population above the age of 18 in Alipurduar district may have been infected with Covid-19 so far, a survey has shown. The ‘sero-survey’ was recently conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), in association with the World Health Organisation (WHO), in Alipurduar district, officials said here today.
“The ICMR has published the results of the sero-survey conducted in 69 districts across the country, including six districts of West Bengal, recently,” an official said. It is learnt that blood samples of 400 persons in 40 clusters at the rate of 10 per cluster, covering all blocks of Alipurduar district, had been collected during the serosurvey, which is in fact the “anti-Cov-2 Immunoglobulin G (IgG) test.
The results of this tests show that four persons were tested positive for Covid-19 among the total 400 samples collected, officials said. “We had collected blood samples of persons who are above 18 years of age. We have found 1 percent of the total samples testing positive for Covid 19,” said the deputy Chief Medical Officer of Health-2 of Alipurduar district, Dr Subarna Goswami.
“All the Covid-19 positive patients in Alipurduar has either travel history or has come in contact with Covid patients. “There is no possibility of community spread in Alipurduar at present,” Dr Goswami added.Notably, only six places in West Bengal had been included in the survey for detection of IgG antibodies as approved by the State Health Department. The five other areas are Kolkata, Bankura, South 24 Parganas, Purba Medinipur and Jhargram.