NOIDA: Gautam Budh Nagar reported the second-highest number of
Covid cases in the state for three out of seven days leading up to Diwali; the other days it was in the third and fourth spots.
According to official data, Lucknow recorded the highest single-day jumps for the most number of times in the week between November 6 and November 12. The other top district names include GB Nagar, Meerut and Ghaziabad — in that order.
With the festivities in full swing, the daily
cases in GB Nagar ranged from 145 to over 200 till Thursday.
Meanwhile, Lucknow reported steady spurts with around 200-300 cases per day. Meerut (132-160 daily cases) and Ghaziabad (100-145 daily cases) were at the third and fourth spots in the last seven days.
However,
GB Nagar district magistrate Suhas LY has called this a “good trend at early detection” instead of just an increase in the number of cases. He said that besides government labs, a bulk of positive reports have come from private testing labs. He added that such labs are allowed to test liberally as against other districts, which largely depend on government labs.
“While the RT-PCR positivity rate of private labs was recorded at 29% till November 4, it was 9% for government labs. The trend has continued, which shows that more people in GB Nagar with symptoms and having the means to pay are getting themselves tested as against other districts that are unable to catch the positive cases. Hence, GB Nagar’s numbers are not to be confused with an increase in the number of cases especially when compared to Lucknow, Ghaziabad and Meerut, all having a non-commensurate number of cases as compared to their demography,” said the DM, adding,“as compared to over 3,000 active cases in Lucknow (3,130 on November 12), the number of active cases in GB Nagar has come down from 1,519 on November 6 to 1,225 on November 12. Our recovery rate is at 93%,” said the DM.
The state government has given the district a target of 4,000 tests per day. “We are conducting 3,500 tests per day and will implement the government’s order to ramp up testing as our focus is early detection and treatment,” said Dr Deepak Ohri, CMO (GB Nagar).