Covid-19 testing to be increased in Gurugram

With an increase in the number of Covid cases being reported daily in Gurugram district, officials from the state health department on Thursday said testing will be stepped up in the district in the coming days and about 3,000 to 4,000 samples will be tested every day

With an increase in the number of Covid cases being reported daily in Gurugram district, officials from the state health department on Thursday said testing will be stepped up in the district in the coming days and about 3,000 to 4,000 samples will be tested every day.

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On Thursday, Gurugram reported 147 new Covid-19 cases and a positivity rate of 8.78%. A total of 1,672 samples were sent for testing in the past 24 hours, district health officials said.

Testing numbers were reduced to fewer than 1,500 samples a day in the district after Covid-related restrictions were lifted earlier this month. The government is also planning to deploy more staff on Covid response duty by moving them from other health programmes, officials said.

Rajeev Arora, additional chief secretary, health, said, “We are continuously monitoring the situation in Gurugram as cases are increasing. There is almost no hospitalisation in the district and cases are also not that high until now. I will visit the district on Friday to take stock of the situation and the measures to be taken will be decided accordingly. Meanwhile, testing will be ramped up in the district. We will go back to testing 3,000-4,000 samples daily as was done earlier.”

Officials further said the district health department had been instructed move all lab technicians, staff from different health programmes such as dengue and malaria, to Covid response duty.

On Wednesday, after the district task force meeting, officials from health department said testing sites will be decided depending on areas from where the maximum cases are being reported.

Prabhjot Singh, director of National Health Mission in Haryana, said the state is monitoring the situation in Gurugram and the National Capital Region and is planning to increase daily testing.

“We are considering all possibilities to increase the manpower of the health department. So far, the deputy commissioner and health department Gurugram have been asked to use all lab technicians and health staff available with other programmes such as malaria, dengue, and tuberculosis to be deployed for Covid testing, as severity of cases in other programmes is not that high. But the testing numbers will definitely be restored to the previous highs soon.”

On Wednesday, Gurugram deputy commissioner during the district task force meeting had said mandatory masks, and other Covid restrictions may be reimposed in the district continues to witness a spike in cases.

Meanwhile, the administration of precautionary doses in the 18-60 years age category crossed the 1,000-dose mark for the first time on Sunday. The numbers were high on Thursday as well as vaccination was carried out in 25 private hospitals, as opposed to eight to 10 hospitals earlier. A total of 1,419 precautionary doses were administered in Gurugram on Thursday of which, 1,003 were in the 18-60 years age group, 326 in the 60+ age group and the remaining to health-care workers and front-line workers.

On Thursday, a total of 1,982 normal doses were also administered, including 298 first doses and 265 second doses. Till now, over 5.10 million doses have been administered in Gurugram.