City to breach 3k Covid-19 cases today as health department clears backlog of samples

With 185 new Covid-19 cases reported on Friday, the tally of people affected with the virus has reached 2,922. Out of this, only 976 have been discharged so far, while 1,927 remain hospitalized or in home isolated. SO far, at least 19 people have succumbed to the virus.

The total count of persons infected with SARS-CoV-2 virus is about to breach the 3,000 mark in the city.

Currently, the time gap between sample collection and test result is almost 3-5 days, which is leading to the rapid transmission of Covid-19 cases. (Yogendra Kumar/HT file photo)

And the worst is yet to come, health department officials warned.

With 185 new Covid-19 cases reported on Friday, the tally of people affected with the virus has reached 2,922. Out of this, only 976 have been discharged so far, while 1,927 remain hospitalized or in home isolated. SO far, at least 19 people have succumbed to the virus.

Health department officials stated that the rapid surge in number of cases may continue as they clear a backlog samples, which have been collected but not yet sent to government labs for testing.

Dr Virender Yadav, chief medical officer, said, “As many as 720 samples from the last two days have been sent for testing to labs in Rohtak, Nalhar, Sonepat and Karnal. Clearing backlog of samples collected in the last few days is crucial to get the exact picture of the current Covid-19 situation in the district. The issue of pending samples has to be resolved to reduce the time gap between sample collection and test results.”

Currently, the time gap between sample collection and test result is almost 3-5 days, which is leading to the rapid transmission of Covid-19 cases. “Pendency of cases is at two level. One, we collect the sample but it is sent to the labs in two to three days. Second, backlog is created when there is a delay in testing too. The department is trying to clear the backlog of samples collected for now,” said Yadav, who took charge of Gurugram district’s chief medical officer amid the raging Covid-19 crisis on Thursday.

Data shows that in the last one month, samples collected on a daily basis has increased from 200 to 400. However, with this, the backlog of cases has fluctuated too. In first week of June alone, 394 samples were pending.

Experts, however, said that a backlog impacts the overall positivity rate. Public health expert Dr Preeti Kumar, who is the vice president at Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), said that the key to manage a pandemic is to have real time data. “Backlog of cases will create a mismatch between the total number of people tested positive and the number of actual samples collected in a day. It will lead to an artificially higher number of cases in a day due to delay in samples sent to labs for testing and the declaration of results.”

She added, “Since the total positive cases will not match the actual test done on a single day, it will impact the test positivity rate too. In response to that, epidemiologists takes 5-7 days of moving average data.”

In May the average test positivity rate of Gurugram was 9%, which increased to almost 44% in June, the highest for any district in the state so far. Experts have pointed out that the higher positivity rate indicates increased testing to rule out wider spread.

Currently,Gurugram has 50% Covid-19 burden of the state. Haryana till date has reported 6,334 cases, out of which 3,789 are active while 2,475 patients have been discharged. The death toll across the state stands at 70.