Sero survey: Covid antibodies found in 95.31% policemen, 91.66% health workers In Kashmir

By INS Desk , in Jammu Regional Srinagar , at September 10, 2021

Srinagar: At least 95.31% police personnel and 91.66 health workers in Kashmir valley have developed antibodies against Covid-19, the latest sero-survey has revealed.

The sero prevalence studies were conducted across all districts of Kashmir in July this year and included two sub groups of health care providers and police personnel.

“Data and blood samples from 731 health care workers and 981 samples from police personnel were collected using customized Epicollect5 application while blood was testing by department of Biochemistry GMC Srinagar on Abbott Architect auto-analysers using chemiluminescent immunoassay technique,” officials of GMC here said.

The sero prevalence among health care providers was 91.66% and at the time of sampling, 60.33% health care providers had taken both doses of vaccine while another 19.15% has taken single shot. However, the vaccination coverage has gone up since samples were taken.

“What’s more surprising is that 95.31% of police personnel have shown antibodies against SARS CoV-2 Infection and 90.01% police personnel had taken both jabs while another 19.15% had received single shot, when data was collected in July this year, which must have scaled up to almost 100% by now for both doses.”

Reportedly not a single police personnel has been admitted with COVID severity.

The data from these two sub-sets of population is showing “promising trend” as against 84.3% sero positivity among general population, as these two sub groups have been almost covered with full Immunization against COVID. These figures encourage that all eligible persons shall get both jabs of COVID Vaccination to prevent severity of disease and hospital admissions, said Dr. S. Muhammad Salim Khan, Professor and HOD, Community Medicine Government College Srinagar and principal investigator of the study.

The study was conducted by Government Medical College Srinagar in collaboration with Community Medicine departments of SKIMS, SKIMS Medical College Srinagar, government Medical College Anantnag and Government Medical College Baramullah with full support from directorate of health sciences Kashmir and J&K national health mission. The samples were tested in biosafety level-2 lab of department of Biochemistry GMC Srinagar while it’s department of community medicine was the central coordinating unit.