Ghaziabad’ sample positivity rate for Covid-19 fell below 1% this month, which is the lowest it had been since the peak of nearly 20% in June.
Sample positivity rate refers to the number of samples testing positive per 100 samples tested. Sometimes patients would giver more than one test for confirmation and so, total positive samples could be higher than total positive cases.
However, officials say there may be another reason for fewer cases: People were not coming forward.
The Ghaziabad health department had deployed 20 teams across the district to search and find positive cases.
“Each team can take up anything between 100-150 samples per day. But they are not getting a positive response from residents. This could be a reason for the drastic reduction in positivity rate, but also the transmission of infection too has come down since December,” said Dr NK Gupta, chief medical officer.
In December, the sample positivity rate was 2.99% with 3034 positive reports out of a total of 101,496 that month. During November, the rate was 4.14% with 4822 positive reports out of a total of 116,399 tests that month. Till January 18, the rate stood at 0.96% and it would take a sudden spurt in cases, like the UK variant of the virus (not yet reported in Ghaziabad) that is said to be 70% more transmissible, for it to surpass December, said officials.
In December, there were 372 positive reports out of total of 38836 tests.
{{/usCountry}}In December, there were 372 positive reports out of total of 38836 tests.
{{/usCountry}}No fatalities since Dec 29
The official state figures for the district say that the last death due to the virus was reported on December 29 and since then the total fatalities had not gotten over 102.
According to the official figures of the district health department, the district conducted an average of 2572 tests per day in first 18 days of January which yielded a daily average of about 20 cases. During December, the average number of daily tests was about 3323, and 31 positive cases per day on average.
“The arrival of vaccine has sent a positive signal among the population, while the severity of infection has also reduced substantially (through better reporting and care). However, it will take more time for everyone to get vaccinated. Even after vaccination, it takes about one and half months for immunity to develop. So, till the time people get vaccinated, they must continue with Covid-19-appropriate behaviour,” said Dr Ashish Agarwal, president of the Indian Medical Association – Ghaziabad. “Although the cases have come down, we still advise people to get themselves tested of they have Covid-like symptoms. The infection has come down but not finished.”
With the start of vaccination drive on January 16, only 379 people were given the shots while another lot of 11846 have been identified to get the shots on January 22, 28 and 29.