Health department gets 10,000 antigen kits for new Large Outbreak Areas

The Gurugram administration has received 10,000 antigen detection kits that it will use to ramp up testing in the new Large Outbreak Areas(LoR)s, where Covid-19

The Gurugram administration has received 10,000 antigen detection kits that it will use to ramp up testing in the new Large Outbreak Areas(LoR)s, where Covid-19 clusters are gradually emerging.

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More than 27,000 antigen tests have been conducted in the city since June 24, out of which more than 750 have tested positive.

Dr Jai Prakash Sharma, district surveillance officer, said, “At least 27,077 tests have been done in the city, out of which 761 have tested positive for Covid-19. The total positivity rate with antigen kits has been 2.81%. On Thursday, 1,444 antigen detection kits were used, out of which 47 cases tested positive. Around 10,000 additional kits have been received to conduct tests in the new LoRs where cases are increasing.”

The district administration on Wednesday had identified nine Large Outbreak Regions (LORs) of the city, which will be put under a 13-day lockdown starting Wednesday till July 28. Intensive contact tracing and rapid antigen testing camps will be conducted in these LoRs to curb the SARS-CoV-2 virus from spreading.

As per the government order, a LOR has a localized increase in Covid-19 cases within a defined geographical area in a village, a town or a city. The cases may or may not be epidemiologically linked. For operational purposes, a LOR is deemed to be present when there are 15 or more cases.

The new identified LoRs are Rajiv Nagar, Om Nagar (Shivaji Nagar, Shanti Nagar), Nathupur (Ravinder Nath slum, Shamshan Ghat slum), Laxman Vihar (Dayanand Colony), H block Palam Vihar, Firoj Gandhi Colony (Madanpuri, Baldev Nagar), and Patel Nagar (Nai Basti and Arjun Nagar). It also includes Manesar (Harijan Basti and Lal Building Chowk), as well as Sohna (Thakurwada, Gujjar Ghati, Shiv Kund, Lohiyawada, Mangal Colony, Kayasthwada, Pathanwada, Tilpat Colony, Kohliwada, New Anaj Mandi and Baniyawada).

Dr Virender Yadav, chief medical officer of Gurugram, said that better management would lead to better coverage in testing. “On an average, 1500 antigen tests are being conducted every day. At least 40 camps will be organised in the affected areas in the coming days. Besides LoRs, a testing camp will be organised in Pataudi which is a containment zone. More kits will be ordered in case we need them.”

Antigen tests look for specific protein associated with the Sars-Cov-2 virus, the pathogen that causes Covid-19. The state health department has already placed an order of 100,000 kits with a South Korean company that has a manufacturing plant in Manesar. The new test highly specific (99.3% to 100%) — meaning a positive result on the test is a “true positive” and does not need any confirmatory test. The sensitivity is between 50.6% to 84% depending on the viral load, meaning those who test negative might still have the infection and are advised to go for a test through the more reliable RT-PCR method if they show symptoms of the disease.

Meanwhile, Gurugram on Thursday saw 142 new Covid-19 cases being reported taking the total count of persons infected with SARS-CoV-2 virus to 7,350. Out of the 7,350, at least 1,043 are active cases and 6,197 have recovered. On Thursday, 120 people recovered from the infectious disease. The Covid-19 death toll as on Thursday stood at 110 .