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The national capital's next round of monthly sero-prevalence survey began on Tuesday covering all 272 municipal wards to analyse the COVID-19 situation in Delhi at "micro-level", Health Minister Satyendar Jain said.
The sample size this time will be 17,000 and the exercise will continue for seven days, he said at a press conference.
The last sero-prevalence survey was held from August 1-7, which showed that 29.1 per cent of the people surveyed had antibodies against the coronavirus infection.
"The fresh round of sero-survey began today. This time we will be doing it ward-wise. So, all 272 municipal wards of Delhi will be covered, plus two Assembly areas. Sampling will be done for a week. After that, results should come in 7-10 days," Jain said.
The previous surveys were done district-wise. But this time, it is being done ward-wise to analyse the COVID-19 situation in the city at "micro-level", the Delhi health minister said.
While announcing the results of the August survey, Jain had said that 15,000 representative samples were taken from 11 districts. He had also said the prevalence of antibodies in males was 28.3 per cent and that in females was 32.2 per cent.
Sero-prevalence of antibodies against COVID-19 found in the age group of less than 18 was 34.7 per cent, in 18-50 years 28.5 per cent, and 31.2 per cent in 50 years and above.
The exercise was undertaken in the first week of August for a comprehensive assessment of the COVID-19 situation in Delhi and to formulate strategies based on its findings.
The sero-prevalence survey before the August exercise, done from June 27-July 10 by the Delhi government in association with the National Centre for Disease Control, had used 21,387 samples and found that around 23 per cent of the people surveyed had exposure to the novel coronavirus.
About the death of former President Pranab Mukherjee, the Delhi health minister said, "His absence will always be felt."
Asked to comment on the country's economy suffering its worst slump on record in April-June, Jain said the Centre should assess the reasons and "just COVID cannot be blamed for it".
"The economy is in a very bad state. Perhaps it is the biggest decline in the history of the country," the minister said.
The gross domestic product has contracted by 23.9 per cent as the coronavirus-related lockdown weighed on the already declining consumer demand and investment.
The national capital saw a spurt in daily cases in the last several days and a steady rise in active cases since August 5.
The national capital on Tuesday recorded 2,312 fresh COVID-19 cases, the highest single-day spike here in around two months, taking the tally to over 1.77 lakh, while the death toll mounted to 4462. It registered 1,358 fresh COVID-19 cases on Monday.
On Sunday, Delhi had recorded 2,024 fresh cases, the highest single-day spike in the city in August. It was also the highest spurt in Delhi in nearly 50 days.
Jain had on July 22 announced that after analysing the results of the June-July survey, it was decided that such exercise would be done every month to formulate better policies for tackling the COVID-19 situation in the national capital.