PRAYAGRAJ: Officials of the district health department in
Prayagraj district are perplexed and worried after noticing higher pathogenicity and high infection rate among the residents in the second wave of
coronavirus pandemic.
Officials said the latest trend amid rising Covid-19 cases reveals that more than two or three members of the same family in the city are testing positive in the second wave, while one or two at most had tested positive in the first wave.
Moreover, more young people, in the 18 to 45 age group, said to be having good immunity, are getting infected this time, signaling a higher pathogenicity of the Covid-19 variant causing a second wave.
Additional CMO and nodal officer (Covid-19) Dr Rishi Sahai told TOI, “The Covid surge this time and analysis of cases and trends reveal a higher pathogenicity and infection index in the city. It is a dangerous trend and so we are focusing on extensive testing to contain the spread of the disease. We have scaled up our testing target to around 20,000 per day.”
"We are roping in 200 lab assistants for testing and studying the cases for deciding the further course of action," Dr Sahai added.
Revealing infection trends in the district, the nodal officer said around 70% of Covid cases are being detected from urban pockets and the rest from rural areas.
“The health department has decided to conduct around 15,000 tests daily from Wednesday onwards and will increase it to 20,000 by next week,” said Dr Sahai.
“The contract tracing of the infected will also be increased since this variant is more infectious. Now, we will be tracing at least 20 contacts of a Covid patient and testing would be done at doorstep,” he added.
In a more significant development, officials are compiling the data of cases where the CT (computed tomography) scan report of patients revealed both lung infection and pneumonia even though both antigen and RT-PCR tests had been negative.
In the second wave, the number of Covid cases in Prayagraj has crossed the 7,000-mark.
“Over 70% containment zones are in urban pockets compared to Trans-Ganga and Trans-Yamuna areas. This shows that infection is spreading more in urban pockets,” he added.
Officials are now specifically focusing on areas from where more cases are being reported and have initiated corrective measures to curb infection.