E-Paper
Ghaziabad: Antigen tests find 9.87% positivity rate on day one; admin begins process for plasma trials
Ghaziabad: The district health department on Friday started with the first round of antigen tests to detect coronavirus (Covid-19) disease cases, during which eight
Ghaziabad: The district health department on Friday started with the first round of antigen tests to detect coronavirus (Covid-19) disease cases, during which eight persons were found positive, out of the 81 samples collected. The tests were administered at seven locations across Ghaziabad and testing will be ramped up as the district in coming days has received total of 8,000 antigen kits.
“The suspected cases of influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory illness (SARI) cases were scanned in containment zones and also in high risk groups. Total of 81 tests were conducted and eight persons were found positive, as per health department records. This is an encouraging sign as the percentage of positive cases is low,” said Ajay Shankar Pandey, district magistrate.
With the results on Friday, the percentage of positive cases is about 9.87. For this purpose, seven teams have been deployed as against 30 announced on Thursday. The health department said it was due to lesser availability of lab technicians that the number of teams was reduced.
Antigen testing has been started in several locations including Vaishali, Jhandapur, Indirapuram, Khoda, Vijay Nagar, Bhovapur and city areas.
The district magistrate also inspected one of the antigen test centres in Vaishali.
Plasma therapy trials
“We have also started the process of preparing a list of people who have recovered from Covid-19 and are ready for donating plasma for trials. We have deputed a nodal officer who will now be assessing the infrastructure availability and will seek permission on this from the Indian Council for Medical Research. There is some infrastructure available with private hospitals and in the government sector. We plan to start the process at the earliest so that patients recover soon,” Pandey added.
“We are making calls to patients who have recovered and are encouraging them to donate plasma for the benefit of others who are infected with Covid-19. Seven former patients have given their consent for donating plasma. I have also directed the chief medical superintendents of different L1, L2 and L3 hospitals to get in touch with patients and encourage them to donate plasma. We need to reduce the death rate and see to it that patients recover,” he said.
Plasma therapy involves treating the patient with the plasma of a compatible patient who has recovered from Covid-19. The antibodies present in the plasma are expected to help the patient fight the infection.
Revision in curfew timings
Meanwhile, the divisional commissioner (Meerut) has directed for revised timings of night curfew from 8pm to 6am each days. Earlier, this was from 9pm to 5am.
“As per the revised timings, all the markets, liquor shops and business establishments will remain closed from 8pm to 6am. If any shop is found open, action will be taken up,” said a spokesperson of the district administration.
More L1 facilities
With the rising number of Covid-19 cases in the district, officials are now searching for more facilities that can be used as L1 category hospitals as there is another wave of spike in Covid-19 cases.
“As the cases are rising, our L1 Divyajyoti Hospital, which got opened two days ago, now has about 100 patients as against the availability of 250 beds. So now, we are searching for more hospitals. In case we bring up multiple hospitals, it would require more teams for services,” said Dr NK Gupta, chief medical officer.
In accordance with the directions of the Uttar Pradesh government, the Ghaziabad district has proposed for acquisition of 13 different colleges which have a combined capacity of 4,000 L1 beds.
“We are searching for more hospitals and planning to come up with a big facility at Radha Swami Satsang Beas at Morta. They have already provided us their premises for stay and transportation of migrant workers. But we need to assess facilities and infrastructure there. The problem in the district is that we have availability of only several colleges where a maximum of 400 beds can be converted to L1 category facilities,” the DM said.
According to the new guidelines issued by the state government on June 19, if any asymptomatic patient shows no symptoms, he/she can be discharged without undergoing any test on the tenth day from their date of admission. But, such patients will have to remain in home quarantine for seven days after discharge from hospital.
In the context of the new guidelines and the admin scouting for more L1 facilities, the CMO said: “We are hoping that discharge of Covid-19 patients will also become faster after the recently received discharge guidelines.”
As per the earlier guidelines, the asymptomatic patients were being discharged only after their first report was negative. Prior to this, a positive patient needed to have two successive negative reports in order to get discharged.
