Ahmedabad’s daily tally goes down by half in 3 days

AHMEDABAD: The city on Monday recorded 4,361 new Covid cases, the lowest in the past seven days, and half from 8,627 on January 21. Ahmedabad is not alone. All major cities have been recording steady drop in Covid cases for the past two days after peak of the cases last week. But, wait before you believe the third wave has peaked, and rejoice.

Pointing at test positivity rate on Monday, experts said that Ahmedabad carried out 15,234 tests to find 4,441 cases in the district — a TPR of 29%.While it was surely less than 37% recorded on January 21, the number of tests plummeted by 36%, indicate numbers.
“The queues at antigen testing domes have not decreased, and OPDs at general practitioners is also full. But now citizens have understood that the official records may result in actions like micro containment and restriction of movement so they may not be reporting infections to the authorities,” observed a city-based critical care specialist. “Also, due to the mild nature of the disease, there are fewer chances that the person, who is not recorded on the AMC books, may turn severe..”
But officials said the trend may turn detrimental if the persons who are self-testing, self-medicating and self-isolating are not being honest. “There is no way apart from symptoms like dry cough and mild fever to ascertain whether a person is a carrier. This may result in higher spread in the community. Thus, some districts with lower population have actually started getting records of those who are getting cough and cold medicines over the counters,” said another expert.