Gurugram: Positivity-rate falls sharply in five days due to increase in private testing

The district’s test-positivity rate (TPR) between June 18 and June 22 dipped to between 12 and 18 percent, as opposed to significantly higher positivity —between

The district’s test-positivity rate (TPR) between June 18 and June 22 dipped to between 12 and 18 percent, as opposed to significantly higher positivity —between 46 to 77 percent— between June 10 and June 17.

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This, experts and officials said, can be attributed to a sharp increase in private testing, which Gurugram has witnessed over the past five days.

Between June 18 and June 21, around 69 percent of 2,027 samples collected from the district were by private laboratories, shows the district health bulletin data. During this period, Gurugram began testing upwards of 500 samples per day, as opposed to the preceding several weeks, when the district was testing between 300 to 350 samples per day. For comparison, between June 10 to June 17, only about 39 percent of the 1833 samples were collected privately (excluding data for two days when this metric did not figure in the bulletin).

“The data suggests that the daily pool of samples being tested is growing, owing mainly to the private labs pitching in. If the government were to enhance its testing capabilities and do more targeted tests through contact tracing, you will likely see the test-positivity rate rise again,” said Dheeraj Singh, a data scientist who has been tracking Gurugram’s Covid-19 data.

Health department officials seemed to agree. “We have seen that more and more people are choosing to get independently tested at private labs, especially over the last three to four days. This is a positive step. It shows that citizens are not averse to being tested. With Haryana reducing the price from Rs 4500 to Rs 2400 for a test, we expect private labs to be reporting even more samples in coming days,” said Dr Virender Yadav, chief medical officer, Gurugram.

At present, there are seven private laboratories empaneled to conduct tests in the district, of which all are now operational, according to a ‘preparedness report’ submitted by the deputy commissioner to the Centre’s National Health Mission on June 18. A copy of the report was obtained by Hindustan Times on Monday. It states that these seven private labs are expected to have a capacity of 5,000 RT-PCR tests by the same date.

“At present, private laboratories in the city have the capacity to test between 700 to 1,000 samples per day. By July end, they will be able to do up to 3,000 RT PCR tests per day, then 5,000 per day after that. If more people opt to get tested on their own, it would significantly complement the health department’s efforts,” said a district level official with the Integrated Disease Surveillance Program.

Health department officials also stated that they are on their way to augmenting government testing facilities in the district as well. According to the deputy commissioner’s preparedness report, the health department is aiming to conduct 2,000 confirmatory RT-PCR tests daily by July 15. In addition to this, the department also plans to conduct at least 20,000 antigen tests per day by July end, with 46,000 tests per day by July 15, the deputy commissioner’s report shows.

The representative of two private labs could not be connected for a comment by HT.