Gurugram prepares to conduct 6,000 daily Covid-19 tests

The state health department is now preparing to conduct 6,000 daily tests in Gurugram by the end of the month, said officials privy to the matter. The development

The state health department is now preparing to conduct 6,000 daily tests in Gurugram by the end of the month, said officials privy to the matter. The development comes amid concerns that the district is ‘undertesting’ for Covid-19, even as new infections emerge at a faster rate than ever before.

HT Image

At present, the district is conducting 4,000 daily tests, which, officials and experts both agree, is an insufficient number. “At the current stage, given Gurugram’s increasing positivity rate, we definitely need to conduct more tests. We are preparing to conduct 6,000 daily tests in the district soon, starting with an additional 1,000 or so tests this week,” said Rajeev Arora, additional chief secretary (health), Haryana government.

In fact, despite a recent increase in testing (from 3,000 to 4,000 samples per day), the district’s test positivity rate (TPR) — or the ratio of positive cases to samples tested — has not dipped. On the contrary, health department data shows that Gurugram’s TPR has been rising by two to three percent every week for at least the past five weeks.

For example, Gururgam tested 21,584 samples for Covid-19 between November 1 and November 7. Of these, 15 percent (or 3,251 samples) came back positive for coronavirus infection. The following week saw a slight increase in the number of tests, with the health department testing 23,035 samples for Covid-19 between November 8 and November 14. Of these, 18 percent (or 4,130 samples) came back positive.

The positivity rate has been trending upward since at least mid-October, department data shows. Even between October 25 and 31, for example, the district tested 18,936 samples for Covid-19, with a positivity of 12.5 percent.

This continuing upward trend elicited concern from experts, who strongly advised that citizens should continue to maintain social distancing. “This trend is the opposite of what one would like to see. If the TPR is rising even with an increase in tests, it means that we are not keeping up with the spread of the virus. A TPR of 18 percent is quite high, and if there is still an upward trend then it is not a good sign,” cautioned Dr Rajesh Kumar, epidemiologist and former head of the department of community medicine, PGIMER, Chandigarh.

Kumar also added that winter conditions are likely to get more severe in the coming weeks. “Failing to reign in the spread of Covid-19 now will mean more people will fall sick at the peak of winter. While mortality may not go up the way it did during the summer, thanks to six months of clinical experience with patients, it can still put a lot of strain on the healthcare system. To stay in control of the situation we need to start testing and isolating more people soon,” he added.

State health department officials said they are monitoring the situation closely. As stringent lockdown restrictions, including curbs on public mobility, have been lifted, the health department agreed that expanding testing is the most appropriate way to stem the growth of new infections.

Addressing concerns of undertesting, Arora said, “There is no dearth of resources. We are pushing up the numbers in response to the situation. The use of rapid antigen kits has slowed, but we are also going to supply Gurugram with more of them, which will be used in market places and crowded economic zones in the next few days.”

Arora, as well as authorities at the district level, also said that Gurugram’s testing strategy may be further narrowed as new infections balloon. “Even if the TPR reduces, the actual number of daily new infections will take some time to come down. We were already prioritising tests for the elderly and patients with co-morbidities, but going forward we have to really look out for the most vulnerable people in the most high-risk areas,” said Dr Jai Prakash Sharma, the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme’s district surveillance officer in Gurugram.