Ghaziabad’s positivity rate declines after seven weeks

Even as fresh coronavirus (Covid-19) disease cases continue to be reported in Ghaziabad, the test positivity rate (TPR) has seen a decline after a long gap of seven

Even as fresh coronavirus (Covid-19) disease cases continue to be reported in Ghaziabad, the test positivity rate (TPR) has seen a decline after a long gap of seven weeks in the district.

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According to district health department officials, a minor decline was seen in the previous week in the average number of cases being reported daily, when figures of the last eight weeks were analysed.

According to official records of the Ghaziabad health department, the week from September 28 to October 4 saw a TPR of 3.69%, with 37,126 tests resulting in 1,370 positives in the district.

Before this, in the last eight weeks, the TPR was lowest in the week between August 3 and August 9 at 2.64%, the figures show. During this time, the weekly TPR fluctuated between 3.72% and 6.49%, district records show.

“The decline in positivity rate is due to effective surveillance as well as better monitoring of surveillance teams, which go out for testing in containment zones. Apart from containment zones, we have been monitoring non-containment zones as well. The declining positivity rate is the result of all measures we have taken for effective management of Covid-19,” said Ajay Shankar Pandey, district magistrate, Ghaziabad.

The figures also indicate that the number of new cases has dropped even with higher testing. For instance, during the week from September 7 to September 13, the district conducted 24,949 tests, which resulted in 1,619 cases, with a positivity rate of 6.49%.

“Nowadays, our average daily testing is between 5,500 and 6,000 tests. Despite this, however, the number of cases has reduced over the past three weeks. We are closely monitoring the daily cases with effective surveillance and higher daily testing. At present, we can say that the positivity rate is on a decline. However, we will observe trends for another two-three weeks before we can say for sure that the TPR is down,” said an officer from the district health department, who wished not to be named.

According to official figures, since March, the district till October 4 had conducted a total of 3,35,610 tests, which resulted in 15,087 positive cases, with an overall positivity rate of 4.49%.

“The trend indicates that we are now moving in a state of plateau. It is likely that this will continue for another one or two months and hopefully, we will be able to see a decline thereafter. The present peak of the pandemic has taken a lot of time to reach and might have been worse had it not been for the lockdown and other measures. However, there should be no complacency and all health protocols must be strictly observed,” said Dr VB Jindal, former president of Indian Medical Association, Ghaziabad.

According to the state control room records of October 5, the district had a total of 15,141 cases with the last 1,000 cases being reported in just six days. The district had touched the 10,000-cases mark on September 10. After this, however, the district saw about 1,000 fresh coronavirus cases being added every four-five days.

Amit Mohan Prasad, Uttar Pradesh’s additional chief secretary (health), said on Monday that the overall positivity rate in the state has also seen a decline and that the number of active cases has also reduced.

“The week between September 7 and 13 saw a TPR of 4.8% in the state, which has now reduced to 2.6% in the week between September 28 and October 4. The number of active cases is also on a decline. We had 68,235 active cases on September 17, which have now reduced to 45,025 (on October 5, as per state control room records). The overall recovery rate has now reached 87.75%,” he added.