Covid testing ramped up in Noida and Ghaziabad, hospitals set up special desks

NOIDA/GHAZIABAD: The health department has scaled up Covid testing in Noida and Ghaziabad.
The District Combined Hospital (DCH) in Sector 39, Noida, the DCH in Sanjay Nagar, Ghaziabad, and MMG Hospital, Ghaziabad, have installed desks at their reception areas for Covid tests of symptomatic patients. According to the hospital administrations, these arrangements will help keep patients with symptoms like cough, cold and fever away from others.
Recently, the state government had issued guidelines to activate all Covid testing centres and check all symptomatic patients for Covid at hospitals. Private hospitals are also conducting Covid tests of such patients. The health department will send samples of all positive cases to King George's Medical University in Lucknow for genome sequencing.
"We have also started random sampling at public places like bus stations. According to the state government guidelines, symptomatic patients at all hospitals are getting tested now," GB Nagar surveillance officer Dr Amit Kumar told TOI.
On the other hand, rapid response teams are visiting houses of Covid-positive patients for contact tracing and RTPCR tests to contain the spread of the virus.
On Wednesday, Noida tested 2,003 samples and reported 69 new Covid cases, while Ghaziabad tested 1,000 samples and logged 50 new cases. Currently, Noida has 350 active cases and Ghaziabad 232.
The number of hospitalisations, which had been in single digits till last week, has also reached 15 in GB Nagar and 14 in Ghaziabad.
"Patients undergoing treatment at different hospitals either have comorbid conditions or are aged. They all have mild symptoms," Dr Amit Kumar, the district surveillance officer of GB Nagar, told TOI.
Officials also said that though the number of hospitalisations has increased, people have been recovering within 5-7 days without any severity. On Wednesday, 36 people in home isolation in Noida recovered from Covid, 24 completed their home isolation, and four got discharged from hospitals.
The doctors attending to the patients in OPDs reported a spike in the number of people visiting them with coughs and colds. They urged people to follow Covid protocols like wearing masks, social distancing, and cleaning hands with soap and sanitiser.