Covid-19: GB Nagar’s recovery rate is better than other districts sharing borders with Delhi
According to the figures issued by the district till Tuesday evening, 346 out of 496 Covid-19 patients were cured. Among the other districts that borders the national capital, Ghaziabad came in next with 62.9% (217 out of 345 cases), followed by Haryana’s Sonepat at 63.5% (144 out of 233 cases).
Gautam Budh Nagar has a Covid-19 recovery rate of 69.75% till Tuesday evening, which is the number of patients cured of infectious disease out of the total infections expressed in percentage, the highest among all districts that border Delhi.
According to the figures issued by the district till Tuesday evening, 346 out of 496 Covid-19 patients were cured. Among the other districts that borders the national capital, Ghaziabad came in next with 62.9% (217 out of 345 cases), followed by Haryana’s Sonepat at 63.5% (144 out of 233 cases). Gurugram had the lowest rate at 26.7% (288 out of 1,063 cases) and Faridabad was at 34.8% (169 out of 485).
Nationally, this figure is at 48.2%.
With the district reporting eight deaths, the fatality rate is 1.41%, better than the national rate of 2.8%.
Even in terms of weekly growth rate of Covid-19 positive cases, GB Nagar, till Tuesday evening, had the lowest rate of increase at 35.51%, followed by Sonepat (53.65%) and Ghaziabad (70.30%). Gurugram had the maximum growth rate at 227% while Faridabad recorded 107%. A 100% growth rate means that the cases doubled every seven days. Nationally, the doubling rate is 14 days.
Gautam Budh Nagar district was one of the worst affected districts in India, when Covid-19 had begun its march in the country. By the second week of April, the district had 68 cases, the most in Uttar Pradesh with 41 linked to a firm base out of Sector 135.
GB Nagar district magistrate (DM) Suhas LY credits the strategic approach adopted by his team of doctors and officials. “Initially, we focused on early identification of the disease, through active and passive surveillance. Then, we started contact tracing, followed by quarantine of all suspected high-risk cases. We also laid stress on ensuring proper isolation of positive cases and containment activity. And above all, we never forgot to ensure adequate sanitization and social distancing norms. All these activities have been effective in controlling the spread of disease in the district,” he said.
He added that the district health officials were asked to aggressively test people for the coronavirus. “As a result, the testing index of our district is much better than the national index. While the national figure of samples taken is 1820 per million population, in GB Nagar the samples taken per million population is 4623,” he said.
Suhas further said that so far 10,958 samples have been collected in the district, of which 496 tested Covid-19 positive. “While the sample positivity rate in the district is 4.74%, active cases per lakh population in GB Nagar is only 6.11. Also, the Covid-19 case doubling rate in the district is 19.14 days, which is much better than the national doubling rate of 14 days. Also, we have active cases per lakh population is 6.11, which is much better than the national index of 9.7,” he said.
Brisbane-based virologist, Dr. Pranav Kumar, who was earlier with a Delhi-based hospital, said that the figures suggested that timely testing and co-ordination between the administrative and health officials. “Often there is a big gap between the reports and medication in India. But, the administration seems following up at every point in GB Nagar district,” he said over phone.
Dr. Vivek Gupta, a virologist in Goverment Institute of Medical Sciences (GIMS), said that administration and health officials are keeping a round-the-clock watch on right from testing to discharge of patients. “Perhaps, this has made the difference,” he said.
Delhi witnessed 1,513 fresh cases on Thursday, taking the total number of cases to 23,645 . At least 606 people have succumbed to the virus so far.