| ORIGINAL ARTICLE |
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| Year : 2020 | Volume
: 151
| Issue : 2 | Page : 236-240 |
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Severe acute respiratory illness surveillance for coronavirus disease 2019, India, 2020
Nivedita Gupta1, Ira Praharaj1, Tarun Bhatnagar2, Jeromie Wesley Vivian Thangaraj2, Sidhartha Giri1, Himanshu Chauhan3, Sanket Kulkarni3, Manoj Murhekar2, Sujeet Singh3, Raman R Gangakhedkar1, Balram Bhargava4, ICMR COVID Team5
1 Division of Epidemiology & Communicable Diseases, Indian Council of Medical Research, New Delhi, India
2 ICMR-National Institute of Epidemiology, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
3 National Centre for Disease Control, Delhi, India
4 Department of Health Research (ICMR), Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, New Delhi, India
Correspondence Address:
Dr Manoj Murhekar
Director, ICMR-National Institute of Epidemiology, Chennai 600 077, Tamil Nadu
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/ijmr.IJMR_1035_20
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Background & objectives: Sentinel surveillance among severe acute respiratory illness (SARI) patients can help identify the spread and extent of transmission of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). SARI surveillance was initiated in the early phase of the COVID-19 outbreak in India. We describe here the positivity for COVID-19 among SARI patients and their characteristics.
Methods: SARI patients admitted at 41 sentinel sites from February 15, 2020 onwards were tested for COVID-19 by real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, targeting E and RdRp genes of SARS-CoV-2. Data were extracted from Virus Research and Diagnostic Laboratory Network for analysis.
Results: A total of 104 (1.8%) of the 5,911 SARI patients tested were positive for COVID-19. These cases were reported from 52 districts in 20 States/Union Territories. The COVID-19 positivity was higher among males and patients aged above 50 years. In all, 40 (39.2%) COVID-19 cases did not report any history of contact with a known case or international travel.
Interpretation & conclusions: COVID-19 containment activities need to be targeted in districts reporting COVID-19 cases among SARI patients. Intensifying sentinel surveillance for COVID-19 among SARI patients may be an efficient tool to effectively use resources towards containment and mitigation efforts.
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