The ongoing serological surveillance on COVID-19 in Odisha will focus on those below 18 years as the rate of infection among children and adolescents is on the rise for the last two weeks, officials said on Tuesday.

The rate of infection among those below 18 years has gone over 17 percent, which is alarming, they said.

Though all previous surveys in Odisha were done among adults, the high rate of infection among the minors prompted the authorities to shift the focus, they added.

The state-level survey is being carried out in 12 districts at a time, officials said.

The survey is being conducted by the ICMR Regional Medical Research Centre for the first time after the expansion of the vaccination program.

Till August, Odisha has administered 2,17,83,156 doses of vaccines. “As decisions on opening education institutions and targeting the last mile in immunization need to be made in near future, it is crucial to generate evidence on exposure of children and adolescents, the unvaccinated group, to the virus,” a senior member of the survey team said.

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