The Gauteng Health Department is to carry out an antibody survey to determine the rate of COVID-19 infections in the province, reports The Citizen. The department will conduct the survey along with the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC), the University of Pretoria and the University of Witwatersrand, according to spokesperson Kwara Kekana.
The report quotes Kekana as saying the antibody survey would help the department to track and identify people infected with COVID-19 as some people who contracted the disease had not been tested.
“Antibody prevalent surveys are investigations used to determine the percentage of people who could have been infected with COVID-19. There are many people in Gauteng, who possibly had COVID-19, but were never counted as COVID-19 cases because they were never tested. The reason why they were not tested could be that they did not have symptoms of COVID-19 or did not meet the criteria to have a test.”
Kekana said that the survey would also help the department determine the spread of the virus. “The survey will assist the government to better understand how the virus is spread throughout the population over time and be able to put adequate response measures to stop its further spread.”
[link url="https://citizen.co.za/news/covid-19/2378417/gauteng-health-department-to-conduct-covid-19-antibody-survey/"]Full report in The Citizen[/link]