With 1,963 fresh Covid cases, Ghaziabad records highest single-day spike ever

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The district on Friday recorded 1,963 fresh Covid cases — the highest single-day spike since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020 — pushing the tally of active cases across the 10,000-mark to 10,604.

According to official records of the district health department, the previous largest single-day spike was 1,788 cases on April 30, 2021, during the second wave.

Since January 10, the district has been recording over 1,000 cases daily, and the total number of cases since the start of the pandemic has gone up to 67,366, including the 11,452 cases recorded in January.

About 11,047 of 11,452 cases in January were recorded in the last 10 days (since January 5), when the district ramped up daily testing and conducted more than the daily target of 7,400 assigned to it by the government.

According to district health officials, 395 patients were discharged between Thursday and Friday, taking the tally of discharged patients to 56,301. The number of patients who died due to Covid so far in the district is 461.

“There is an increase in daily cases because we received about 3,000 pending test reports in the past 24 hours from a lab in Lucknow where we had to send the samples, as the labs in the region were overburdened. The present trend of cases indicates that the cases will be on the higher side in the coming days. We expect cases to decline only by the end of the month,” said Dr Sunil Tyagi, additional chief medical officer.

“About 395 patients recovered in home isolation and were marked as discharged on Friday. This is due to the effect of changes made to the portal after the government revised the home isolation period from 10 days to seven days. The revision will also increase our recovery rate,” Dr Tyagi added.

Officials said that the reduction of the home isolation period from 10 days to seven days will significantly reduce the number of active cases because patients who stay in home isolation are marked as active. However, once they are discharged in a lesser number of days, it will lessen the number of such cases.

On Friday, the district health department reported 1,963 Covid cases after testing 9,690 samples, leading to a positivity rate of 20.26% — the highest single-day positivity rate during the present wave.

Positivity rate refers to the percentage of people who test positive for the virus compared to those who have been tested for it.

The district last recorded its highest positivity rate during the present wave on January 11 — 18.72%.

“The present wave is less severe and no deaths have taken place so far. Patients are getting better in 3-5 days. However, if the symptoms persist for a longer duration, it is a cause of concern. So, the present infection could be due to Omicron variant, and if these symptoms persist for a longer duration, it could mean other variants such as Delta, which is more severe and requires extensive clinical intervention,” said Dr Ashish Aggarwal, former president of Indian Medical Association (Ghaziabad chapter).

“At present, there are 84,440 active cases in Uttar Pradesh, 82,412 of whom are in home isolation. This indicates that the severity of infection is low and only a few people require hospitalisation. Still, everyone should observe all Covid-related precautions,” said Amit Mohan Prasad, UP’s additional chief secretary (health).


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