DW BUREAU / Chandigarh A sero survey of people below 18 years of age will be conducted in Chandigarh to determine the number of children infected by COVID-19, PGIMER director Jagat Ram said on Saturday. Sero surveys or sero prevalence studies are based on analysis of antibodies collected through blood samples. "We will be carrying out a sero survey here to see how many children were infected with the virus," Ram said. The Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education & Research (PGIMER) has decided to take a sample size of 2,500 Chandigarh-based people below 18 years of age for the survey, he said. The sampling will be done from the city, rural and slum areas, he added. Chandigarh administrator and Punjab Governor V P Singh Badnore had recently asked the PGIMER to conduct sero tests for persons below 18 years. Another government medical college and hospital had been entrusted with the task of carrying out a similar survey for people above 18 years. Bandore had also directed that exclusive beds be kept in reserve for children, in case of any eventuality of the third wave of COVID-19. It was also decided to get the hospital in Sector 45, ESI Hospital, beds in Sector 16 hospital, PGIMER and temporary Army Hospital in Panjab University, in readiness for such paediatric Covid patients. The PGIMER director on Saturday said several steps, including raising the number of beds, oxygen capacity and procuring more ventilators, were being taken in the wake of a possible third wave of coronavirus. He said three oxygen plants having capacity of 3,000 litres per minute will come up soon at the PGIMER. Presently, the health facility has a capacity of 20 metric tonnes of oxygen. The PGIMER director said they will also have more than 100 ventilators for Covid patients. He also asked people to follow the Covid appropriate behaviour. (editor@dailyworld.in)