Mass antigen testing starts as Covid-19 cases continue to mount

The health department started mass screening for Covid-19 infections, using antigen tests, to identify locations where the Covid-19 infection is spreading fast, as Gurugram recorded 188 new infections on Tuesday, officials familiar with the developments said

The health department started mass screening for Covid-19 infections, using antigen tests, to identify locations where the Covid-19 infection is spreading fast, as Gurugram recorded 188 new infections on Tuesday, officials familiar with the developments said.

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“The current positivity rate – total confirmed positives out of the samples tested – of the district is less than 5%. Considering the rapid increase in Covid-19 infection, the department has started antigen testing camps under different urban primary health centres (UPHC) to identify locations where the infection has been prevalent,” said Dr Virender Yadav, chief medical officer.

According to the health department bulletin, the overall count of active cases reached 1,088, the highest caseload in the last three months, leading to an immediate prioritising of mass testing. The overall tally of infections now stands at 61, 016.

An antigen test is a speedy testing strategy that delivers results in 30 minutes. It easily detects cases having a high load of SARS-CoV-2 virus, but due to specificity issues, it misses infections with low viral levels. It, however, helps in telling or identifying areas where the virus is present in high concentration and more people are likely to get infected.

Antigen camps will be organised at more than 115 sites till April 5 and on Tuesday, about 230 antigen tests were done, said officials, attributing the low number to a government leave, on the occasion of Martyrs’ Day.

Since the beginning of March, the district has been reporting a constant uptick in coronavirus cases. From 343 active cases until March 1, the count has ballooned to at least 1,088, showing almost three times the rise in the infection. The spike has also added to the Covid-19 burden of Haryana. The active case count of the state reached 5,698 on Monday, which, until the first week of March, was around 1,200.

To control the surge, testing has already been raised by 19% in the district. Data shows that almost 27, 554 tests have been administered from March 17 to 23, while at least 22, 316 were done from March 10 to 16.

According to officials, over 14 contacts are traced and tested for every positive case. Data shows that about 75 people with moderate to severe illness have been admitted to hospitals, while nearly 925 active cases are in home isolated. The death toll remains at 361.

Under each UPHC, camps will be held in different densely populated locations on different days. For instance, at Sector 31, camps will be held from March 27 to 29 at Chikitsa Charitable dispensary, Housing Board Colony and HSIIDC Apartment. Under Wazirabad UPHC, camps will be held at health department subcentres in Jharsa, Chakkarpur and the community centre in Sector 46. A large number of camps will also be held at Farrukhnagar, Sohna and old Gurugram areas of Mullahera, Basai, Kasan and Badshahpur, among others, said officials.