After peak in September, active Covid cases fall below 500 in Ghaziabad and Noida

Ghaziabad: Coronavirus (Covid-19) cases in Ghaziabad and Gautam Buddha Nagar are witnessing a declining trend as the number of active cases in both districts has

Ghaziabad: Coronavirus (Covid-19) cases in Ghaziabad and Gautam Buddha Nagar are witnessing a declining trend as the number of active cases in both districts has fallen below the figure of 500. According to the state control figures of December 28, Ghaziabad had 397 Covid-19 cases while Gautam Buddha Nagar had 462. Both districts are in the list of top five in Uttar Pradesh which, combined, account for 32.44% of total cases in the state.

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Going by the figures, active cases in Ghaziabad peaked to 2,126 on September 14, and have been keeping below the 1,000-mark of active cases every day since December 16. Gautam Buddha Nagar, on the other hand, reached its peak of 2,008 active cases on September 13, and has been able to keep the daily active case count below 1,000 since December 7.

Looking at state-wide figures, daily active cases in UP had peaked around the same time – 68,235 cases recorded on September 17. Since then, this number has been on the decline, with 14,710 active cases as on December 28.

Experts are looking at the scenario in different ways.

“I believe that we are on the descending arm of the epidemic curve, in which cases are on the decline, after a peak. We should see the picture in a larger perspective rather than focussing on small areas. It seems we are on the descending curve of the first wave. The wave got prolonged as we took precautionary lockdown,” said Dr Lalit Kant, the former epidemiology and communicable diseases head at the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR).

“Further, it will also depend on how fast the vaccine comes through so that we may avoid any possibility of a second wave. Hence, face masks and other precautions must continue in 2021 as well,” he added.

Dr Ashish Agarwal, the president of Indian Medical Association (Ghaziabad), said many patients are getting negative results in tests conducted.

“The declining trend of cases or lesser number of active cases means that either the virus has slowed down or there is prevalence of immunity, due to which the disease came and went on without giving symptoms. There was an expectation that cases will spike in the winter season but the trend (we are witnessing now) is very different,” Dr Agarwal added.

With the number of active cases going down, the recovery rate in the two districts has also increased.

Ghaziabad, till December 28, had discharged 25,432 of 25,930 overall Sars-Cov-2 patients, with a recovery rate of 98.08%, while Gautam Buddha Nagar has discharged 24,294 of 24,845 total patients, with a recovery rate of 97.78%.

Suhay LY, district magistrate of Gautam Buddha Nagarm said that the trend of active cases has been on the decline for past 15-20 days.

“In the previous months, the number of cases had declined but they again spiked around Diwali. So, irrespective of decline, we are continuing with our efforts against the coronavirus and also focussing on the new Covid variant. Two travellers from the UK have tested positive and their genome sequencing reports are awaited,” he added.

Ajay Shankar Pandey, the district magistrate of Ghaziabad, said, “Despite the declining trend, we are focussing on surveillance, focussed testing and contact tracing, which will continue further at the same level. We have also completed preparation for Covid vaccine. If the number of cases rises in future, our teams have proper systems and infrastructure in place to act accordingly.”