Under Abhishek's initiative, over 50K Covid tests done in Diamond Harbour in a day

Kolkata: In a befitting tribute to Swami Vivekananda on his 159th birth anniversary, Diamond Harbour parliamentary constituency (PC) under the leadership of its MP Abhishek Banerjee conducted more than 50 thousand Covid tests in a day. The Diamond Harbour PC in South 24-Parganas held 53,203 tests on Wednesday out of which 1,158 persons tested positive.

"Delighted to share that we have been able to pay appropriate tributes to Swamiji by conducting MORE THAN 50 THOUSAND #COVID19 TESTS in Diamond Harbour PC, in a SINGLE DAY. Additionally, in 7 days the POSITIVITY RATE is the LOWEST among all LS (Lok Sabha) constituencies in Bengal. We promise to continue our efforts towards bringing down the positivity rate further, which is CURRENTLY AT 2.16 per cent," tweeted Banerjee.

He further tweeted: "We will leave NO STONE UNTURNED in our quest to make Diamond Harbour PC #COVID free. Your well-being will always be our TOP PRIORITY!."

Banerjee had set a target of conducting 30,000 COVID-19 tests in Diamond Harbour PC but the administration well surpassed the same.

He will visit a number of isolation centres in Diamond Harbour PC on Thursday.

A robust infrastructure was developed under the two sub divisions –Alipore Sadar and Diamond Harbour in the PC. In Alipore Sadar area that comprise five blocks — Bishnupur I, Bishnupur II, Budge Budge I, Budge Budge II, Thakurpukur- Maheshtala and three municipalities- Maheshtala, Budge Budge and Pujali there were 182 testing venues , 20 testing kiosks and 15 testing on wheels facilities. In Diamond Harbour subdivision that consists of Diamond Harbour I, Diamond Harbour II, Falta and Diamond Harbour municipality there were 78 testing venues, 10 testing kiosks and 8 testing on wheels facilities.

A total number of 39020 tests were held in Sadar sub division and 14183 under Diamond Harbour sub division with 930 and 221 persons testing positive respectively.

The highest number of tests 8023 was held in Budge Budge II block with 218 testing positive.

However, the positivity percentage 9.58 was highest in Budge Budge municipality where 127 out of 1325 tests were found positive.

According to data, BJP-led Uttar Pradesh paints a dreadful picture. Testing is still low under the state administration's guidance.

As informed by Additional Chief Medical Officer, Dr Milind Vardhan, only around 1.53 lakh tests have been performed in the state's capital, Lucknow, in the last one week. The 'aggressive' testing according to him is a small figure of around 8,000 people daily (as of December 1) and this has only been ramped up to 22 to 24,000 daily.