State govt directs Ghaziabad to increase RT-PCR testing, surveillance in non-containment zones

On Thursday, the Uttar Pradesh government appointed nodal officer, Senthil Pandian C, an IAS officer, came to Ghaziabad and held a review meeting for efforts to control Covid-19 taken up in the district. The officer, during the meeting, directed district officials to take up surveillance activities in non-containment zones and also to enhance RT-PCR testing in comparison to rapid antigen kits.

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Apart from this, the Uttar Pradesh chief minister has directed the districts to take up case studies of recovered patients so that such analysis can be put to use for treating other patients and number of recoveries can be increased further. The officials in Ghaziabad said that they have started working in compliance of the directions and formed groups of doctors who have already started with the activity.

“On directions of the CM, we have formed groups of doctors who are in touch with senior doctors from Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGI), Lucknow. The case studies of patients are discussed and exchange of information has started taking place. The nodal officer has directed for increasing RT-PCR testing and also to enhance surveillance activities in non-containment zones,” said Ajay Shankar Pandey, district magistrate, Ghaziabad.

At present, the district is taking up about 800-1,000 RT-PCR tests per day and another set of about 2,000 tests through rapid antigen kits. Till August 26, the district achieved a total sampling of 1,83,687 samples out of which test results were received for 1,78,056 samples.

Of total tests till August 26, the share of tests conducted through rapid antigen kits stood at 1,04,204 and 2,708 of these were found positive.

Further, officials of the district health department also said that they will now be making extensive use of medicines like hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) and Ivermectin which will be used as prophylactics.

“We have stock of about 1.5 lakh of HCQ and over one lakh of Ivermectin tablets. We now plan to provide these to patients, their contacts and also to people in containment zones so that they get protection against the infection. This way we plan to contain the infection and a review will be made in a fortnight. The state government has recommended the use of the two prophylactics, through an order,” said Dr NK Gupta, chief medical officer, Ghaziabad.

Officials said the renewed measures have been directed so that the number of discharges is increased further in comparison to active cases.

“Since a lot of efforts are being put up in co-ordinated activities, our fatality rate has come down and number of discharges has also increased in comparison to active cases,” Pandey added.

According to official figures, the number of discharges surpassed the number of active cases since July 10. Then, the total patients discharged stood at 1,459 while active cases stood at 1,341.

Since then, the gap between discharges and active cases has widened with figures of August 26 stating total discharges at 6,352, while the number of active cases at 1,237. This is about 5.13 times the active cases.

At national level, according to the figures of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on August 26, the number of Covid recoveries across the country exceeded the active cases by 3.5 times.

The figures by the Ministry indicated that 1,760,489 people have recovered which is more than the number of active cases which stood at 7,07,267 on August 26. With the figures, the country’s recovery rate amongst the Covid-19 patients crossed 76%.