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COVID-19 prevalence test, to show how many Romanians had disease, will be done on 29,019 subjects
The Health Minister, Nelu Tataru, has stated on Wednesday that the COVID-19 prevalence test, which will show the percentage of the population immunized to the novel coronavirus, will be done over June, July and August and will be conducted on a sample of 29,019 subjects.
"The prevalence test will be done in June, July and I believe August. This prevalence test will be done in all eight development regions, in each county, and in each county in nine age groups. In each county, three labs will be selected for medical analysis. These three labs do not have to be the ones for infectious diseases or those which work in pneumology, where we have an accentuated pulmonary pathology and which can influence the study. The calculated sample, it differs from county to county depending on density and the size of population, is of 29,019 subjects. At each of these labs patients will present who will come for harvesting samples for other pathologies, for regular pathologies or for evaluation. Depending on the population density, 1 to 3, or 1 in 5, the residual serum, after the analyses are processed, is taken over, with the agreement of that patient, after he's told what that residual serum is used for. If they agree, we take it over, it goes to INSP [National Institute for Public Health] where it is processed. They're some immunological tests (...), which show immunization, said Tataru at private broadcaster B1 TV.
He added that the test will show the percentage of the population immunized in age groups, in counties, in regions and at the national level.
"We will observe then how many of Romania's population have had the disease, are immunized and, depending on the result, we can predict for autumn-winter a future epidemic episode and maybe its magnitude," said the Health Minister.