Replicate steps by Dharavi to control Covid spread: Doc
The way to stop the spread of Covid-19 is prevention, for which formation of new clusters of the disease has to be avoided. The high positivity rate being seen in the state, and the low doubling time of 10.6 days has the potential for creating a high caseload of patients.
The Covid-19 hotspots, apart from the hospitals, are crowded markets with lack of social distancing norms, religious places and social gatherings at home.
“It doesn’t have to be a crowd of 100 people. It can be 15 too. In a recent case in TS, it was found that an office, despite having alternate working days, a meeting of five persons during the tea break led to spread of the virus. It was a matter of only minutes,” explained a senior government doctor who are looking at the new cases being reported across the state.
There is now a surge in cases in the districts with Ranga Reddy crossing the 200-case mark every day and Malkajgiri-Medchal reporting close to 100 cases. The constant movement of asymptomatic and symptomatic cases has led to a rise in cases. The golden line for controlling the spread of the virus is ‘track, trace and treat’.
Dr Kiran Madhala, senior government doctor, said,
“The virus behaviour is uniform across India according to studies done by the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology. When one of the world’s biggest hotspots, Dharavi, can become an example of control, so can others. It is the measures taken by people in Dharavi which must be replicated everywhere.”
An area with a positive case requires surveillance, and all the contacts of the patient are suspected to be infected. Tracking and treating them will ensure that the spread is controlled.
Dr G.V.S. Murthy, director of Indian Institute of Public Health, says, “Active surveillance allows for early detection of cases and that helps to reduce the death rate. There is a strong need for community engagement in testing, tracing and sharing data. This will help to destigmatise Covid-19 and bring in effective control.”