First week of testing nCovid-19 at a tertiary care hospital of Jaipur (Rajasthan) India
Abstract
Coronavirus (nCovid-19) is an emerging disease causing current pandemic. This pandemic has entered in 187 countries including India. There is emphasis on identification of these cases. So this study was conducted in a Private Medical College of Jaipur to know the status of testing of nCovid-19 cases in its initial stages. It was found that 2065 samples were received 13th.April 2020 to 15th April 2020, results were received from 15th April 2020 to 19th April 2020 with positivity of 3.26% and mean time lag was found 2.9 days with standard deviation of one day. Out of 68 positive cases found in these days majority were in 45-60 years with M:F 1.96. All the positive cases were from Jaipur, out of that 73.5% from Ramganj area. As positivity is quite high and majority of positive cases were from Ramganj area so containment measures should be directed mainly towards this area and as the numbers of samples were of just few days so more studies are suggested with appropriate sampling.
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Introduction
The whole world is in pandemic of nCovid-19 which was 1st identified in Wuhan city of Hubei Province, China experiences a cluster of typical pneumonia cases. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) was isolated from the throat and nasal swab cultures.1,2 It's clinical manifestations included fever, dyspnea, fatigue, dry cough, myalgia, lymphopenia and radiographic findings of pneumonia. For severe and critical cases, patients suffered from acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), acute respiratory failure, other serious complications and even death. 3,4 Recent reports suggested that asymptomatic COVID-19 infected individuals could also be the source of transmission. 5,6
To successfully contained the epidemic of SARS-CoV-2, public health interventions such as disease detection and isolation were critical. Thus, rapid and accurate detection of the causative pathogen is essential in controlling the outbreak among both asymptomatic carriers and individuals showing signs of the disease.7 However, since SARS-CoV-2 is a newly discovered virus, the diagnostic toolkit is limited. Current diagnostic tests for coronavirus include reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RTPCR), realtime RT-PCR (rRT-PCR), and reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP). 8,9
Two kinds of diagnostic tests are being currently used in India -- RT-PCR test and rapid antibodies test for nCovid-19, as per the global health norms.10
Conclusion
In the present study, positivity rate of RT-PCR test for nCovid-19 was found 3.26% and mean time lag was found 2.9 days with standard deviation of one day. Among positive cases found majority were in 45-60 years age groups with M:F 1.96. All the positive cases were from Jaipur and 73.5% were from Ramganj area only. As positivity is quite high and majority of positive cases were from Ramganj area so containment measures should be directed mainly towards this area.