Covid positivity rate in Ghaziabad, Noida sees steep rise in last week of August

GHAZIABAD: In wake of the rising Covid-19 cases, Meerut divisional commissioner Anita C Meshram has asked health and administrative officials of six districts of the division, including Ghaziabad and GB Nagar, to intensify surveillance, testing and contact tracing of patients.
The letter comes after the test positivity rate in Ghaziabad, GB Nagar and Meerut districts registered a steep rise in the last week of August.
According to the commissioner’s letter, while 9,205 cases were reported in the division in July, it rose to 9,746 in August. However, there was not much difference in the cases positivity rate for the division in the two months which stood at 2.5%, except for Meerut, which registered an increase in the positivity rate from 1.6% in July to 2.7% in August.
For Ghaziabad, the positivity rates for July and August were registered at 3.99% and 3.68% respectively. Likewise, GB Nagar showed a marginal dip from 3.66% in July to 3.31% in August respectively.
The letter also revealed that of the total 3,392 Covid cases reported in August in Ghaziabad, 1,002 cases were reported in the last week of August (August 25 to August 31 and the positivity rate for the period was 4.56%.
At 6.08%, the positivity rate for GB Nagar for the corresponding period was even higher. The district registered 748 cases alone in the last week of August, while as many as 2,966 cases were reported in the entire month. For the entire division, the positivity rate stood at 3.23% for August’s last week. The letter reads, “The trend shows that there has been a considerable increase in new Covid cases in the division, especially in Ghaziabad, GB Nagar and Meerut in the last week of August. So there is a need to strengthen surveillance, contact tracing and testing in all districts.”
In Ghaziabad, the trend is continuing in September as well. Till Wednesday, over 1,500 cases were reported in the district and according to health officials, 83% of these cases have been reported from seven areas of Ghaziabad, including Kavi Nagar (293), Indirapuram (271), Sihani Gate (201) and Vijay Nagar (123), among others. District magistrate Ajay Shankar Pandey has also directed the health department to take action as per government directives. A senior health official said that on an average nine contacts of a positive patient have been identified last month. “Apart from surveillance activities, we are trying to create awareness among people about social distancing and wearing masks.” the official added.