Ghaziabad witnesses marginal increase in test positivity rate post-Diwali

Unlike the national Capital which recently saw a spike in Covid-19 cases during and following the festive season, Ghaziabad’s increase in positivity is relatively marginal.

Positivity, or test positivity rate (TPR), is the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases per 100 tests and is a crucial metric that denotes the prevalence of the virus. According to recommendations by the World Health Organization (WHO), the positivity rate from a region that has a comprehensive testing programme should be at or below 5% for at least two weeks before it can be considered that the outbreak is under control there.

In the case of the Capital, which had never reached this threshold and the lowest it had ever been was 5.34%, the rise was documented from the last two weeks of October and touched a high of 15.3% on November 15. It has since been decreasing and reached 9.13% on Thursday.

Against this, Ghaziabad, from November 5 to November 14 (the 10 days to Diwali), conducted 37,365 tests and returned a TPR of 3.47%. In the next 10 days, they had tested 44,971 samples and returned a TPR of 3.69%. The total TPR till November 24 (till data available) was 4.21%, a slight decrease from the 4.3% on October 31.

“We can say that there is not much variation (in TPR), but the trend is on the rise. The Chhatt festival ended recently (November 21), and we have deployed teams to test residents who stepped out. More cases may arise then. The wedding season too is on in full swing and will continue till next month,” said Ajay Shankar Pandey, district magistrate, Ghaziabad. “We have also increased testing in sensitive areas and also focussing on enforcement with the help of drones (as per a high court ruling on crowded areas). So, our focus will be to watch the trend of cases till mid of December. In city areas I have directed to deploy 10 drones to keep an eye on people in markets while other local bodies have also been asked to deploy at least one drone for surveillance on people coming out without masks and not maintaining social distancing.”

As part of their ‘post-festival strategy’ Ghaziabad aims to increase testing from 4,000 tests per day to at least 6000.

“Ideally, the testing should be about 8,000-10,000 tests per day. Since it is winter and pollution is also high, we have more Covid patients coming in and most require L-3 (tertiary care for severe cases) treatment,” said Dr Ashish Agrawal, president of Indian Medical Association – Ghaziabad.

Recently, a new 100-bedded paid Covid-19 private hospital was inaugurated at Lohiya Nagar which also has 30 ICU beds and is the fourteenth private hospital in the district to provide dedicated treatment.

“With the new hospital in place, the number of beds has gone up to 1109 in private hospitals. Overall, we have 240 ICU beds which also include 34 ICU beds in government hospitals,” said an officer from the district health department who wished not to be named.

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