4k test target not met for the third day

Noida: The Covid-19 testing drive continued in Gautam Budh Nagar on Saturday as well, although the district failed to meet the daily target of 4,000 tests even on the third day of the campaign.
GB Nagar collected a total of 3,328 samples on Saturday. These included 1,796 for rapid antigen tests, 1,512 for RT-PCR and 20 for TrueNat. Some 66 people reported positive for Covid-19 in the rapid antigen tests. Officials said that while the antigen tests were lower in number, RT-PCR tests were about 150% of the given target. Meanwhile, the surveillance teams visited 1,488 houses on Friday.
“The antigen tests are time-consuming since the samples have to be processed immediately. Also, we do not have enough trained staff. This is why, the antigen tests are not meeting the targets. However, we are already conducting higher number of antigen tests than many other cities in NCR,” a senior health department official said.
The state government has given the six districts of Meerut division a target of 4,000 tests per day for the next 10 days, which is supposed to include 3,000 antigen and 1,000 RT-PCR tests. These districts are part of NCR and also contribute to the maximum number of active cases in the state.