GB Nagar to complete 400K Covid-19 tests by end of October

The Gautam Budh Nagar district administration is en route to complete, and most likely will exceed, 400,000 tests by the end of the month.

The Gautam Budh Nagar district administration is en route to complete, and most likely will exceed, 400,000 tests by the end of the month.

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By Sunday, when it tested 3,452 daily samples, 382,023 samples had been tested in the district.

District magistrate Suhas LY said, “From testing just 597 people in March, we ramped up testing to 110,205 in September. Till October 23, we have conducted 133,321 reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests, besides 243,873 rapid antigen tests. As a result of this increased testing, we are witnessing a continuous reduction in positivity rate and cases of new infection.”

The DM 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.

Suhas also said that till a vaccine for Covid-19 arrives, the administration has to focus on non-pharmaceutical interventions like enforcement of social distancing norms, hand washing practices and wearing of masks by the people. “As things open up more and more, it is necessary that people understand and voluntarily adopt Covid-19 appropriate behaviour,” the DM said.

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 3,000 samples in a day in October,” he said.