April’s positivity rate climbed to 19% from just 5% in March

The Covid-19 test positivity rate (TPR) in April was nearly 14 percentage points than March that had recorded a little over 5% in Gautam Budh Nagar district, according to the health department.

TPR is the number of positive results per 100 tests. According to the World Health Organization, the TPR has to be at most 5% for two consecutive weeks for the disease to be considered under control in a region.

The district’s chief medical officer (CMO), Dr Deepak Ohri, said that out of 54,000 RT-PCR tests conducted in March this year, only 2,750 were positive, which gave a TPR of a little over 5%.

“But in April, the positivity rate mounted to over 19% as out of 78,000 RT-PCR tests done in that month, as many as 14,898 persons were found Covid positive.

These tests were conducted in laboratories in Government Institute of Medical Sciences (GIMS), Kailash hospital, Sharda hospital, Jaypee hospital, Fortis hospital and National Institute of Biology (NIB), besides some private pathological laboratories in the district,” he said.

According to officials, GIMS tests the most samples from the district. In April, it conducted almost 68% of all tests.

Dr Vivek Gupta, in-charge of molecular diagnostics and laboratory at GIMS, said, “In April we received 118,952 RT-PCR samples from GB Nagar, Ghaziabad, Hapur, Bulandshahr and Saharanpur, of which around 10,950 tested positive (over 9% TPR. In GB Nagar, we got 53,223 samples of which 6,124 (nearly 11.5%) tested positive,” he said. “From May 1 to 5, we got 23,414 samples of which 6,321 (27%) tested positive. In GB Nagar, we tested 10,933 samples of which 3,335 came out positive in the first five days of May.”

Dr Bhumesh Tyagi, an epidemiologist in Sharda hospital, said that this sudden surge in positivity rate is mainly due more people getting themselves tested.

“In March, they preferred to be in home isolation despite having symptoms. Now, when the second wave hit, they are rushing to labs. As a result, there is a huge surge in positivity. We expect that by the third week of May, the positivity rate graph will reduce over time. But, since the third wave is reportedly inevitable, it is advisable to one and all to adapt a behavioural change, so that the Covid-19 infection couldn’t create more damage. Vaccination, however, is the best option to save lives,” he said.