Sangeeta Pranvendra
Jaipur
The Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) is collecting samples in 21 districts across the country for a sero-surveillance study to check for the presence of anti-bodies against Coronavirus among Indians. The districts have been selected randomly and three of them — Dausa, Rajsamand and Jalore — are in Rajasthan. The samples would be sent to ICMR Chennai for the research. The study will also gauge the immunity level of the people and the extent of spread of the virus among the population.
Twenty teams from ICMR Jodhpur are in Dausa to collect 400 blood samples from 10 villages. The persons from whom samples are collected are randomly selected however, their details are noted down along with samples. Th sample collection from Rajasthan is done by teams from ICMR Jodhpur under the guidance of its director DS Khunteta. The compiled lot of samples would then be sent to ICMR Chennai. “Dausa is among the three districts selected from Rajasthan of the 21 districts of the country. We are providing all possible support to the ICMR teams. They are working to collect samples for a sero-surveillance project. The samples collected in Dausa will be sent to Jodhpur,” said Dr PM Verma, CMHO Dausa.
Of the three selected districts, Dausa has a cumulative positive of 39 patients; of them, 25 recovered and were discharged. The district has 14 active cases, of which 12 are migrants who returned to their villages. Jalore has a cumulative positive of 130 patients of them, 4 recovered and were discharged, while 2 succumbed. There are 124 active cases out of which 120 are migrants. Rajsamand has a cumulative positive of 68 patients; of them, 26 recovered, 16 were discharged. The district has 64 migrants who tested positive and 42 active cases.
Body comes up with fully indigenous diagnostic platform
New Delhi: ICMR on Thursday said it has validated a completely indigenous diagnostic platform for COVID-19 diagnosis. The country’s apex research body said the platform offers a reliable and affordable option to augment the SARS-CoV-2 testing capacity in India.
The ICMR said, “This fully indigenous diagnostic platform offers a reliable and affordable option to augment the SARS-CoV-2 testing capacity in India. The platform comprises a TrueNat machine, inbuilt RNA extraction system, RT-PCR chips, collection swabs and viral lysis medium (VLM). Single assay has a turnaround time of 35-50 minutes for 1-4 samples with a total of 12-48 samples being tested per day, depending upon the type of machine.”
