Rising cases in Delhi worry Gautam Budh Nagar admin; testing to be scaled up

NOIDA: Alarmed with the rising number of coronavirus (Covid-19) disease cases in national capital Delhi, the administration of the Gautam Budh Nagar district has

NOIDA: Alarmed with the rising number of coronavirus (Covid-19) disease cases in national capital Delhi, the administration of the Gautam Budh Nagar district has decided to increase surveillance activities and contact tracing of patients.

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District magistrate Suhas LY said that number of Covid cases in Delhi has always been directly proportional to the same in districts which share borders with the National Capital. “This was witnessed in April when 42% of the cases (in GB Nagar) had come from contacts in Delhi. And now once again, as restrictions have eased and economic activities have started, the case tallies will definitely increase if people don’t take all the precautionary measures,” he said.

He added that being an industrial hub, GB Nagar has a floating population and since nearly one lakh vehicles cross the borders between Delhi and Noida daily, reverse migration can’t be ruled out as the main reason for the increasing trend of Covid-19 cases in Gautam Budh Nagar.

“Now, there is no way to stop cross-border movements. Also, staying indoors is not an option anymore, as the economy needs to be brought back on track. So what we can do now to combat Covid is to increase daily testing to at least 6,000 and enhance the contact tracing. Taking serious note of the sudden surge in daily cases in the recent past, health officials of the district have been asked to increase surveillance in crowded areas. I will myself keep a tab on daily testing and contact tracing,” he said.

Suhas further said that according to health experts, the viral load is the maximum nowadays due to the change in season, which is a good carrier for many virus-borne diseases. “In the present situation, early and timely tracking and providing adequate treatment are the main goals before us. 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 (HDU),” he said.

District chief medical officer (CMO) Dr Deepak Ohri also attributed strict contact-tracing, increased testing and low specificity in rapid antigen tests as a combatant to the caseload rise. “The disease will, of course, spread. However, our focus is on reducing the number of deaths and curing the maximum number of infected patients possible on time. For that, we have adapted the ‘tracking, testing and treating’ methodology in which we are ensuring maximum contact tracing, testing nearly 4,000 people every day and treating infected patients as per symptoms. While recovery rate in GB Nagar is still over 92%, the case fatality rate (CFR) is 0.37%, which is much better than the state’s overall CFR of 1.45%,” said the CMO.