Serosurvey of mass gathering is best option to monitor COVID outbreak: AIIMS doctor

By Sahil Pandey
New Delhi [India], July 12 : As the crowd is flocking towards various hill stations and religious places, Dr Sanjay Rai, professor at the Centre for Community Medicine at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Delhi on Monday suggested that conducting random serosurvey of mass gathering can help monitor any chance of a COVID outbreak.
Speaking to ANI, Dr Rai said, "Wherever mass gathering is allowed then it should be monitored. We should make efforts to achieve normalcy as well. Science says that in any gathering the chances of an outbreak can only increase when the susceptible population is there. And, if a non-susceptible population is more then outbreak chances are reduced. Serosurvey should be done on beneficiaries at the gathering and through this, we can do proper monitoring while heading towards normalcy."
The AIIMS doctor also added that the best way to monitor the mass gathering is by doing random testing at beneficiaries' cost.
"High presence of antibodies is indicative of past infection and hence they may be considered as protected. Although those who are uninfected and have not taken the jab then the person can be at risk. The best way to monitoring the crowd is by doing serosurvey," he added.
The Indian Medical Association (IMA) on Monday urged the central and state governments not to allow any kind of mass gatherings or festival celebrations in the wake of the probable third wave of coronavirus.
IMA President Dr JA Jayalal appealed to the Centre to reconsider its decision of relaxing restrictions. "Holding any festival is not advisable as it can be dangerous. IMA requests the government to reconsider their decision regarding any kind of mass gatherings," IMA president had told ANI.