Surat: Even after it tamed the virus considerably, Surat Municipal Corporation has not given up its fight against the pandemic.
Despite fresh cases and positivity rate coming down, the civic body is still aggressively continuing to test samples to break the chain of transmission. Interestingly, when the contagion was at its peak, number of samples that were being tested was not as high as it is now in the city. SMC officials said that the increasing testing is not only helping in identifying positive cases at the earliest but also keeping the positivity rate low.
While cases had been consistently rising until April 24, average daily testing was around 28,000. Later, when the peak showed a downward trend and the state government announced partial lockdown, the average daily tests in the city crossed 30,000.
Surat: While scarcity of life-saving injection including remdesivir and tocilizumab have kept Covid patients and their relatives in tenterhooks, doctors treating infected patients are also prescribing methylene blue injections.
“The oxygen carrying capacity of red blood cells increases after being administered methylene blue. We used it last year too during the first wave and are prescribing this time as well because we are seeing good results,” said Dr Umesh Shah who treats Covid patients at a private multispecialty hospital in Adajan.
Usually methylene blue is being administered by doctors to patients having mild to moderate symptoms. It is used for methemoglobinemia, a condition of elevated methemoglobin wherein the oxygen is not carried to the tissues.