As testing goes up, positivity rate in Noida reduces by half

Noida: The positivity rate of Covid cases in Noida has seen a substantial decline over the past 12 days when the district tested the maximum number of samples under a surveillance drive.
Between July 1 and 12, Noida’s positivity rate — the total number of Covid-19 cases in comparison to the samples tested — came down from more than 10% to around 5.6%. Noida currently is behind 11 UP districts with a higher positivity rate.
Of the 22,397 samples that Noida tested in the first 12 days of this month, 1,265 turned out to be positive. Even two weeks ago, Noida was among cities that had the highest infection rate. But despite having the highest number of Covid-19 cases in the state, Noida managed to keep the death rate below 1%.
However, there had been allegations that the Noida health department hadn’t been testing too many samples. Testing in the district picked up only during the latter half of June, before the state government set a target of 4,000 samples daily from July 1-10. During this drive, Noida tested 1,866 samples on an average daily.
In the same period, Varanasi reported the highest positivity rate of 11%, followed by Ghaziabad with 10.7% and Balia with 9.7%. Ghaziabad also ramped up testing during the drive and collected 16,358 samples. But this resulted in the highest number of fresh cases — 1,748.
“Compared to other districts, we tested the maximum number of samples and still got a low positivity rate. This may not be very conclusive, but is definitely a heartening sign about a possible reduction in infection. We targeted sampling of mostly high-risk groups like immediate contacts, people with comorbidities and those exhibiting ILI and SARI symptoms,” said Suhas LY, the Noida district magistrate.
About half the tests during this period were done with the rapid antigen method, which is also known for a high percentage of inaccuracies. Of the given target, the districts were supposed to conduct 1,000 RT-PCR and 3,000 antigen tests every day. However, since antigen tests are time-consuming, half of the samples in every district were examined with the RT-PCR method. Those who tested negative with the antigen method were made to take the RT-PCR test again.
The health departments in every district have decided to continue with the antigen testing campaign. Special camps will be set up at five locations across Noida over the next few days.