Covid-19: Ghaziabad crosses 25,000 mark

Ghaziabad: The Ghaziabad district crossed the 25,000 of coronavirus (Covid-19) cases reported so far since March, with the state portal, which is updated real-time,

Ghaziabad: The Ghaziabad district crossed the 25,000 of coronavirus (Covid-19) cases reported so far since March, with the state portal, which is updated real-time, reflecting 25,010 overall cases till 7.35pm on Monday. The state control room figures on December 14 stated that only three cities in Uttar Pradesh – Lucknow, Kanpur and Prayagraj – were among those who have crossed the tally of 25,000 cases so far.

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The first case in the district was detected on March 5, about 284 days ago. Though Ghaziabad district has a high overall tally, the state control room figures of December 14 indicated that it also has a high – 95% – recovery rate, with 1,148 active cases on Monday.

“With regular testing, tracing and early referrals, we have been able to isolate infected cases and have been able to keep the fatality rate below 1%, which is about 0.39% at present. To check any further rise and to isolate more cases, we are conducting focussed testing in high incidence areas. This will help us track more cases and check the spread of Covid-19,” said Ajay Shankar Pandey, district magistrate.

According to the figures of the district health department, , the share of Indirapuram, Vaishali and Vasundhara to the total tally of about 24,826 till December 13 was about 24.69%. The three areas continue to be on the list of high incidence localities.

“Focussed testing should continue in high incidence areas to break the chain of transmission. The discharge rate of 95% and fatality rate of 0.39% indicates that efforts are on by the doctors and healthcare staff in government and private setups. However, we must continue to follow Covid protocols and take all precautions for another couple of months, till a vaccine becomes available,” said Dr Ashish Agrawal, president of Indian Medical Association – Ghaziabad.

On the other hand, the officials of the district health department said that they have completed about 597,599 tests till December 14. They also added that the sample positivity rate of the district in the first 13 days of December has shown a minor decline of 0.3%, as against 4.14% in the month of November.

The official figures stated that overall sample positivity rate of the district till December 13 was about 4.9%, with overall 27,755 positive tests reports of patients emerging out of total 566,676 tests conducted, the number of test reports being more than the number of cases as one case may have been tested more than once.

The district had the highest positivity rate in June, when the rate was about 19.93%. In July and August, there was a considerable decline and the rate again climbed to 5.92% in September.

It was at 4.03% in October and 4.14% in November. The trend now shows a decline in December so far– 3.84%.

The official figures, however, revealed that the district is conducting about an average of about 3,500 daily tests this month while the daily average tests were about 4,057 in November and 4,065 in October.

“We will ramp up testing further but we are concentrating more on focussed testing in high incidence areas. We want that the positivity rate should come down further. The focussed testing during pre-Diwali and post-Diwali period also helped us isolate a number of positive cases. So, all efforts are being taken up to find positive cases and this will help us break the chain of infection,” Pandey added.