Noida/Ghaziabad: The health departments of Noida and Ghaziabad have been conducting more tests than the target set for them. But this has had an effect on the districts’ positivity
rate, which has seen a rapid increase in the past one month.
Against a target of 1,700 RT-PCR tests daily, Ghaziabad has been examining over 2,000 samples these days. In total, the district has been
testing 6,000 samples daily and officials are planning the increase the number in the coming days.
Noida, too, has been conducting 2,000 RT-PCR tests and 3,500 rapid antigen tests daily. Officials said around 6,000 tests are being conducted in government labs alone, while private facilities are testing samples separately.
On Monday, the Noida health department collected 3,547 antigen samples, of which 117 were found positive. A total of 1,847 RT-PCR tests were conducted too.
As testing has been ramped up in the district, the
positivity rate has increased too. In Noida, the positivity rate from RT-PCR samples stands at 6% as of now, which was less than 1% till two months ago in February. For antigen tests, the positivity rate is 1.2%, while the overall positivity rate is 3.2%. Since March, the district has conducted 59,000 RT-PCR tests and 49,000 antigen tests.
Similarly, Ghaziabad, too, has scaled up its testing rate over the past few days. According to data sourced from the health department, as many as 2,062 samples were collected for RT-PCR tests on April 9, followed by 2,387 a day later. On April 11, a total of 2,273 RT-PCR tests had been conducted in Ghaziabad and this increased to 2,545 on April 12.
A senior health official said the department planned to maintain this surge in RT-PCR tests in the coming days, too. In the first 12 days of April, Ghaziabad has tested 65,478 samples — an average of 5,456 tests a day.
The sample positivity rate has more than doubled in the past two weeks. The positivity rate for March was below 1%, but stands at almost 2% (1.98%) now. Ghaziabad’s overall positivity rate since the
Covid outbreak in March last year is 3.5%.
‘Test results delayed’
As the caseload in Noida has increased and more people getting samples checked, residents have approached the district magistrate saying that RT-PCR test results are taking more time than usual.