Ghaziabad: After a downward spiral of daily cases from November to February, Ghaziabad is back to witnessing a skyrocketing
Covid positivity
rate.
The city reported a low
positivity rate of 0.29% in February. But just within two months, the city is now recording a 4.5% positivity rate (till April 19), representing a 16-time increase. The number is also more than six times the positivity rate recorded in March — 0.68%.
According to data provided by the health department, Ghaziabad had conducted 1,05,010 RT-PCR and antigen tests till April 19. Of them, a total of 4,035 people were found positive.
In March, as many as 87,803 tests were done, in which, just 597 people had tested positive. In February, a total of 59,576 tests were conducted in which just 173 people tested positive.
“The overall positivity rate in Ghaziabad this year is 1.87%. However, the rate that was less than 1% in February and March increased manifold in April,” said an official from the health department.
“With the number of daily cases reaching a new high, the positivity rate will further go up and it will be the worst phase since the pandemic began last year,” added the official.
The administration has ramped up testing and in April alone it has conducted 2,106 antigen and 7,398 RT-PCR tests. In March, there were 920 antigen tests and 5,172 RT-PCR tests. In February, the city conducted 288 antigen tests and 3,236 RT-PCR tests.
“We have ramped up testing. In the coming days, we have a target to test about 10,000 samples a day” said the official.
Despite the plan to conduct more tests, only 3,191, 2,640 and 3,796 tests were carried out in the district on Monday, Sunday and last Saturday, respectively.
“From April 1 to 15, Ghaziabad was conducting over 5,500 tests. On April 15, 7,398 tests were done. After that, the testing has shown a steady decline, which is worrisome,” said Dr LK Mishra, a city-based private practitioner. “It could be because of any reason, including shortage of RT-PCR kits or delay in getting test results,” added Mishra.
However, officials from the administration claimed that there is no shortage of testing kits.