Kathmandu, July 20:  The Ministry of Health and Population is to study whether the COVID-19 infection has spread to community. The Epidemiology and Disease Control Division is to launch 'sero prevalence survey' to find out the number of people affected by the pandemic.

The nationwide survey will be supported by the World Health Organisation (WHO), Division Director Dr Basudev Pandey said.    

The Division earlier conducted the coronavirus test of 5,000 people through PCR procedures to trace the scale of infections among the community level.    

Under the sero- survey, the Division will reach out to the community to collect blood samples for the test. The sero-survey involves the testing of blood serum of individuals to detect the history of prevalence of virus on human body. So it is the serological test to check for the prevalence of antibody on human body to find whether a person has already been infected by the COVID-19 virus.    

It may be noted that 97 percent COVID-19 infected in the country are asymptotic. The sero-survey is about the random sample collection and the Division will focus it on the areas reporting the higher cases in all the seven states. Division's senior public health office administrator Mahendradhwaj Adhikari said the survey launching reached the final phase.    

To date, 315,570 people have undergone the PCR tests while 17,658 have been tested positive for the virus. The number of recovery cases is 11,695 and the death toll from the virus has reached 40 in the country.