A serological survey will now be conducted in Delhi every month to find out how many people have developed antibodies from the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the Delhi Health Minister said on July 22 adding that the next survey in Delhi will be conducted between August 1 and 5.

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Addressing a press conference, the Health Minister said, "The Delhi government has decided to conduct sero-survey every month. It will be done from the first day of the month till 5th of every month." The next survey will be conducted on August 1, the minister said, adding that more samples will be taken this time as compared to the last. For the last exercise, survey teams were formed, blood samples were collected from selected individuals after taking written informed consent and then their sera were tested for the IgG antibodies. As many as 21,387 samples were collected during the survey. "But the sample size of next survey will be larger than this. And samples for the survey will be collected on a random basis from all over Delhi," the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader said.

Out of the 11 districts, eight have sero-prevalence of more than 20 percent. In the central, north-east, north and Shahdara districts, the sero-prevalence is 27 percent. Delhi's south-west area has 12.95 percent sero-prevalence, the least in the city, followed by south and west Delhi at 18.61 percent and 19.13 percent, respectively.

The Health Minister further said that in the previous sero survey which was conducted in Delhi between June 27 to July 5, it was found that 24 percent people in the national capital have developed antibodies from COVID-19 virus, which means that 24 percent people have got infected by the virus and then recovered.

The minister said that it was found in the survey that most of the people were not even aware that they have been infected by COVID-19 virus. the Health Minister once again reiterated that in Delhi the spread of COVID-19 has reached the "community", but he cannot say whether it is community spread or not.

The Health Minister himself had tested positive for COVID-19 last month but has recovered and resumed work on July 20.