GB Nagar’s Covid-19 tally crosses 20K mark, last 10K recorded in only 64 days

NOIDA: After the detection of first Covid-19 case on March 8 this year in Gautam Budh Nagar, it took 252 days for the overall tally to cross 20,000-mark on November

NOIDA: After the detection of first Covid-19 case on March 8 this year in Gautam Budh Nagar, it took 252 days for the overall tally to cross 20,000-mark on November 14 in the district. According to the state’s Covid-19 bulletin, while the first 10,000 cases were recorded in 188 days, another 10,000 took just 64 days.

HT Image

The official data also shows that after the first 5,000 Covid-19 positive cases were detected in a span of 145 days, it took only 107 more days for the tally to reach 20,000.

November has seen a surge in the positive cases, as in the past 15 days GB Nagar added 2,497 fresh cases. On Monday, GB Nagar reported 84 new cases, taking the tally to 20,424 in the district.

GB Nagar district magistrate Suhas LY, however, attributes the increased number of testing behind the rise in positive cases since July. “Started with 597 tests in March, we could reach a total of only 26,170 tests by June 30. But after that, we ramped up our testing rate aggressively, and between July 1 and November 15, we have collected samples of as many as 4,68,243 persons. It’s very much obvious that the number of positive cases detected will be directly proportional to the number of persons tested,” he said.

The DM further said that apart from increasing the testing, stress is being laid on proper contact tracing. “In the present situation, early and timely tracking and providing adequate treatment are the main goals before the administration. “Despite having adequate beds for Covid-19 patients, all private and government hospitals have been asked to increase the number of beds in their intensive care units (ICU) and high dependency units,” he said.

Suhas also said that the administration’s main focus is on reducing the number of deaths and curing the maximum possible number of infected patients on time. “For that, we have adapted the universally accepted ‘tracking, testing and treating’ method. The health workers have been told to ensure maximum contact tracing – precisely finding out 25 contacts of one infected patient. We are testing nearly 5,000 people every day and treating infected patients as per symptoms. While recovery rate in GB Nagar is still over 90%, the current case fatality rate (CFR) is around 0.36%, which is much better than the state’s overall CFR of 1.43%,” the DM said.

District chief medical officer Dr Deepak Ohri said that the health workers have been asked to increase the daily testing to over 7,000 and enhance the contact tracing in the district. “It is really a matter of concern for us that the second, third and fourth 5,000 cases came within 44 days, 30 days and 33 days, respectively. To check this speedy growth of new positive cases in the district, the health officials and workers have been categorically asked to keep strict surveillance in the crowded areas. The district magistrate is himself keeping a tab on daily testing and contact tracing in the district,” he said.