The State’s COVID-19 Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) has recommended that the third round of State-level COVID-19 sero survey should be done in April, 2022, with special emphasis on children below 15 years, who remain unvaccinated.
TAC members, who deliberated on the issue at the 155th meeting on Sunday, concluded that a third sero survey is required at this juncture to assess the level of exposure, especially among children. A district-level surveillance covering patients coming to hospitals should be taken up, the TAC recommended.
“A third survey will give us information on the quality of immune response in people, the level of antibody response and how broad the antibody response is in terms of neutralising all other variants,” TAC sources said.
Sources said it is ideal to take up the survey after a few months, preferably in April as it will help assess whether the Omicron wave has contributed to sustain the immune response.
Although the TAC in July recommended a third sero survey across the State and in all age groups to assess the extent of the pandemic exposure, the proposal only remained on paper. By the time the State could start, the third wave began.
Experts had then suggested that analysing the antibody levels after the second wave would help the State in better pandemic management. They had pointed out that some metropolitan cities like Delhi and Mumbai have already completed five rounds of sero survey. State Health Commissioner D. Randeep said the State Surveillance Unit (SSU) would chalk out the modalities and take it up.
C.N. Manjunath, nodal officer for labs and testing in the State’s COVID-19 task force and member of State’s Clinical Experts Committee, said the third round should cover only children as most of them are unvaccinated.
“A majority of the population has been infected during the third wave. Besides, over 90% are fully vaccinated and over 40% of the eligible population has got the booster shot. There is no point in including the adult population in the sero survey now,” he said.
“Analysing the exposure in children will help plan vaccination strategies for them. It is good if most of them are found to be exposed. However, if a majority of children (below 15 years for whom vaccination has not yet opened up) do not show antibodies, then it emphasises the fact that they should also be vaccinated,” he said.
Not feasible to do away with masks now
The State’s COVID-19 Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) that deliberated on Maharashtra’s plans to go mask-free soon, has recommended that the mandate of compulsory face mask wearing in public places should continue in the current scenario until the Centre announces discontinuation.
“The three waves of pandemic have resulted in about 4.2 crore cases and 5 lakh deaths in the country. In Karnataka, it has led to over 39 lakh cases and 39,000 deaths. There are only two well-known defences against SARS CoV-2 virus - the “face mask” that protects against infection and “vaccination” that prevents hospitalizations and deaths. Both the Centre and the courts of law in the country have endorsed these two protective measures till now,” the TAC’s report stated.
The committee also acknowledged that there is a growing trend of restlessness in the public to remove masks.
