The government’s Super Specialty Paediatric Hospital and Post Graduate Teaching Institute (SSPHPGTI) – better known as Child PGI – has tested over 265,000 reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) samples, the highest in a lab run by the state government, for Covid-19 till Wednesday.
The hospital serves 12 districts, including GB Nagar. The others are Ghaziabad, Saharanpur, Hapur, Rampur, Sambhal, Baghpat, Bulandshahr, Kanpur Dehat and other adjoining district. RT-PCR testing is regarded the gold standard of testing for Covid-19.
Dr. (Major) B P Singh, senior emergency medical officer (EMO) of Child PGI, said that the instituted achieved the feat in less than seven months. “The total positivity rate was 1.8 to 2 %. More than 5,000 of them have been tested positive,” he said.
So far, as many as 5,58,389 samples have been tested in the Gautam Budh Nagar district.
District magistrate Suhas LY said that after the outbreak of Covid-19, the main focus has been on expanding the capacity of the district to track the suspected and susceptible population early, test them quickly and treat them effectively. “From testing just 597 people in March, we ramped up testing to 110,205 in September. Till December 9, we have conducted tests of 5,58,389 samples. As a result of this increased testing, we are witnessing a continuous reduction in positivity rate and cases of new infection,” he said.
The DM further said his administration has also set up an integrated Covid-19 control and command centre, which works as the nerve centre of Covid-19 battle in the district. “It is manned by people from health and other departments and is equipped with modern equipments for communication and decision making. We are continuously focussing on improving our surveillance and contact tracing as that is the key to early detection of cases. Also, through continuous monitoring of the containment zones as well as other areas, we are trying to keep the number of cases and the positivity rate low. Surveillance has also been ramped up,” Suhas said.
{{/usCountry}}The DM further said his administration has also set up an integrated Covid-19 control and command centre, which works as the nerve centre of Covid-19 battle in the district. “It is manned by people from health and other departments and is equipped with modern equipments for communication and decision making. We are continuously focussing on improving our surveillance and contact tracing as that is the key to early detection of cases. Also, through continuous monitoring of the containment zones as well as other areas, we are trying to keep the number of cases and the positivity rate low. Surveillance has also been ramped up,” Suhas said.
{{/usCountry}}Chief medical officer (CMO) Dr Deepak Ohri said that there are four ICMR-approved laboratories in the district. “While the labs in Child PGI and Government Institute of Medical Sciences (GIMS) are under the state government, the labs in National Institute of Biology (NIB) and National Institute of Cancer Prevention and Research (NICPR) are owned and controlled by the central government. It is really commendable that the same set of labs, which used to test around 1,300 samples daily in May, are now testing over 4,000 samples in a day in December,” he said.
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