Kerala will do a seroprevalence study across all districts to estimate the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in the community, which will give an indication of the proportion of the population which has had prior, silent exposure to the virus.
The study will be taken up in the first or second week of September, as soon as the district-level training and logistics issues are finalised, senior health officials said.
The seroprevalence study (measuring SARS-CoV-2 antibody level in blood samples) will help assess the level of herd immunity in the population, derived either through natural infection or through vaccination, and give insights into the dynamics of the pandemic.
It will help the State identify populations or geographic locales where the virus penetration is low and evolve future strategies for disease prevention and control.
The fourth round of national-level sero survey done by the ICMR had reported that SARS-CoV-2 antibodies had been detected in just 42.7% of the…