Gurgaon: With a massive surge in Covid-19 cases in the National Capital Region in the past few days, Gurgaon’s health department has increased its focus on testing – a strategy the civil surgeon had stated last week they would be adopting, along with increasing micro containment, in an effort to contain the spread of infection.

According to data compiled from the daily bulletins issued by the district health department, between 8,500 and 1,100 tests have been conducted in Gurgaon on each day this week so far, with more than 10,000 tests being conducted every day for the last three days. In total, more than 48,000 tests have been conducted in the first five days of this week alone.

In comparison, in the preceding week, a total of 52,781 tests had been conducted over the entire seven days, with 6,100 to 8,400 people being tested everyday, This rise in testing, officials said, could also partially be responsible for the surge in covid numbers, as the health department has been reaching a larger section of infected population. While 5,188 new covid cases had emerged last week, the number has already crossed 6,500 (6,634) this week. More than 1,000 new cases have been recorded for the last three days in a row, with the district also recording its highest single-day spike in cases on Friday, when 1919 people tested positive – 11,003 tests were conducted on the day.

“We have increased testing over the last few days, between 14 and 16 testing camps, both RT-PCR and antigen facilities are being set up across the district daily. This could also be partially responsible for the rise in cases,” said Dr Virender Yadav, Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of Gurgaon.

“Our effort has been to carry out as much testing as we can with the manpower and infrastructure that we have. However, we have reached a kind of saturation point in this regard. The aim now is to maintain these numbers and continue extensive testing,” he said. Micro containment – the second strategy that the health department is adopting – has also been increased this week, with the number of such containment zones being increased from 94 at the start of week to 119 in fresh orders issued on Friday evening.

At present, Gurgaon has 8,980 active Covid cases, of which 8,418 are in home isolation. Despite the surge in cases, Deputy Commissioner Yash Garg, speaking to The Indian Express on Friday, had dismissed the rumours of a weekend lockdown for the district – a measure that has been adopted in neighbouring Delhi to curb the infection. “As of now, it is only night curfew that is being imposed. If this escalates and the government thinks it fit, then we might be going for a weekend lockdown, but as of now there are no plans for it,” he said.

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