Ghaziabad completes four lakh Covid-19 tests

Ghaziabad: Ghaziabad has undertaken four lakh tests to detect the Sars-Cov-2, which causes the coronavirus (Covid-19) disease, with the last leg of the testing milestone

Ghaziabad: Ghaziabad has undertaken four lakh tests to detect the Sars-Cov-2, which causes the coronavirus (Covid-19) disease, with the last leg of the testing milestone having been reached in only 23 days.

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The health department said it has now undertaken more reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests as they have been asked to conduct only 2,000 tests through rapid antigen test kits. The RT-PCR tests are considered the golden standard in testing for Covid-19.

The first case in the district surfaced on March 5. Subsequently, till June 25, the district had been conducting only RT-PCR tests, after which it started using antigen kits.

The official records indicate that by July 30 (147 days since March 5), the district had undertaken a total of one lakh tests. The second lakh was undertaken from July 31 to September 1 – a span of 33 days.

Later, as rapid antigen testing increased in share – from 57.15% to 58.5% – the district had administered another lakh tests by September 28 – 27 days since the last milestone.

The last set of one lakh tests, however, took only 23 days to complete – September 29 to October 21 – which is the fastest so far.

“The use of rapid kits has helped us achieve more testing and we were able to find suspected cases in containment zones and also at our testing centres, where tests were on a walk-in basis. Initially, we were conducting 2,000-2,500 tests daily but we increased it to about 4,500-5,000 and even reached 6,000 tests per day during last week of September,” said Ajay Shankar Pandey, district magistrate.

“Now, we will remain focussed on testing activities, besides trying to increase contact tracing efforts. At present, we are tracing an average of about 15 contacts per case and getting them tested. The number of cases is on the decline but testing will continue to find more suspected cases,” he added.

The district conducted the highest 6,042 tests on October 5 which remains the single-day highest tests conducted so far.

“Now, we have been given a target of conducting 3,100 tests per day, which includes 2,000 per day tests with the use of rapid antigen kits. So, in order to keep up testing, we are focussing on more RT-PCR tests which are more reliable than rapid tests,” said an officer from the district health department, who wished not to be named.

According to records of the district health department, the district conducted 4,01,663 total tests till October 21 which included 2,37,846 tests conducted with the help of rapid kits, with a total share of about 59.22% in total testing.

Till October 23, the district, with increased testing, had conducted about 397 tests per day per million of population since March 5. The World Health Organisation’s (WHO’s) recommendation is of 140 tests per million residents a day.

According to the figures of the state control room, the district on October 24 has a total of 17,818 Covid-19 cases which includes 16,637 patients who have been discharged while the number of active cases stood at 1099.