<span style="color: #222222;">Indian Council of Medical Research, ICMR has advised the States to conduct sero-survey to measure corona virus exposure in the population using IgG ELISA test. In an attempt to decide the future course of action against the pandemic, ICMR has communicated a detailed plan to all the states to measure corona virus exposure in general population as well as in high risk populations. The numbers and frequency in different groups to be tested has been entrusted with states depending upon the requirement and situation in that particular area.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">ICMR has said, IgG antibodies generally start appearing after two weeks of onset of infection, once the individual has recovered after infection and last for several months. Therefore, the IgG test is not useful for detecting acute infection but indicates episode of corona infection in the past. Sero-surveys help to understand the proportion of population exposed to corona infection including asymptomatic individuals. ICMR said, depending upon the level of Sero-prevalence of infection, appropriate public health interventions can be planned and implemented for prevention and control of the disease. It said, periodic Sero-surveys are useful to guide the policy makers to conduct surveys in high risk or vulnerable populations like health care workers, frontline workers, immune-compromised individuals, individuals in containment zones to know who has been infected in the past and has now recovered.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">ICMR said, the sero-survey would be conducted using an IgG ELISA kit. Scientists at ICMR-National Institute of Virology, Pune have developed and validated an indigenous IgG ELISA test kit for antibody detection of corona virus. The test has undergone intense validation in three stages and has been found to have high sensitivity and specificity. The national community based Sero-survey for Covid-19 will be conducted in randomly selected 69 districts of 21 states. This household level cross-sectional survey will cover 24 thousand adults from the districts categorized on the basis of reported cases of Covid-19.</span><br />