GB Nagar to ramp up testing with antigen kits

District magistrate Suhas LY said that the health department has made “all necessary arrangements” to increase its ability for early detection of Covid-19 positive cases in the district, and is procuring nearly 15,000 rapid antigen testing kits.

The Gautam Budh Nagar administration said with the arrival of new rapid “antigen” testing devices, it is going to ramp up its testing capacities for the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) from Wednesday.

Chief medical officer (CMO) Dr Deepak Ohri said “massive Covid-19 testing” will begin in the district from Wednesday. (AP)

District magistrate Suhas LY said that the health department has made “all necessary arrangements” to increase its ability for early detection of Covid-19 positive cases in the district, and is procuring nearly 15,000 rapid antigen testing kits. “ Along with other regions of NCR, we will start rapid antigen testing in GB Nagar. We are getting over 15,000 kits from Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). ICMR officials will also train health department officials, lab technicians of Meerut division on Wednesday in Noida how to use the kits.” 

“The rapid antigen test kits will prove as a boon in the detection of coronavirus infections in the district. Health teams will identify high risk groups, people with co-morbidities and symptoms of influenza-like illnesses (ILI).Dedicated teams will be constituted to administer these tests and special drives will be held in containment zones. Testing with these kits will help in early tracking, containment and reduction of mortality rate,” he added Currently, there are 266 containment zones in the district.

“We have made 229 category-1 containment zone ( areas with single case) and 53w category-2 containment zone ( areas with multiple cases). Based on the advice of the health department, the incident commander of the area where a containment zone lies, and police officers will decide the perimeter of the sealed area,” the DM added.

Chief medical officer (CMO) Dr Deepak Ohri said “massive Covid-19 testing” will begin in the district from Wednesday. “The antigen kits have arrived here and teams led by our doctors will collect samples from all the containment zones initially,” he said.

The new “antigen” test devices can be used on-site and are quicker than lab-based RT-PCR (reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction tests)— which were the primary means of testing in the district till now. They are also cheaper and differ in technology as they look for a specific protein associated with the Sars-Cov-2 —the virus that causes Covid-19. The lab tests look for the exact nucleic signatures of the virus.

Meanwhile, with 63 new Covid-19 positive cases reported on Tuesday, the case count of the district has now gone up to 1,575 cases.

Chief medical officer (CMO) Dr Deepak Ohri said as many as 55 positive patients were discharged from different hospitals on Tuesday. “So far, a total of 949 patients have been cured and discharged from different facilities inthe district. Besides, 19 patients have lost their lives. The district now has 607 active cases,” he said.

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