‘Nearly 8% of new Covid cases in Gurgaon can’t be traced’
270 positive cases yet be traced due to incorrect contact details provided by patients
GURUGRAM: Up to 8% of the new Covid-19 cases being reported in the city are going untraced due to incorrect contact details provided by patients, thereby hindering surveillance and contact tracing, said health department officials, adding that there are more than 270 positive Covid-19 cases that cannot be traced till now.
The task has become particularly challenging as the state government has directed the district to carry out contact tracing in nearly 80% of the new Covid-19 cases confirmed in a single day.
Keshani Anand Arora, state’s chief secretary, in a meeting with district administration on Wednesday, directed the officials to finish contact tracing of nearly 80% of the newly detected cases in a day to break the chain of transmission, according to the press statement issued by the administration.
On Friday, 111 new cases were reported, taking the total tally of coronavirus infected persons to 6,578. Of these, 968 are active cases, while 5,507 patients have recovered till now. The Covid-19 toll stands at 103.
“Every day, we have 5-8% cases of such Covid-19 positive cases which cannot be traced,” said Vinay Pratap Singh, commissioner, Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) in a press meet on Friday.
“Compared to previous months, the reporting by private labs has improved. The names of patients who cannot be traced due to incorrect contact details have been forwarded to the police department,” said Singh. The MCG has been given the task of coordinating with the private and government labs for Covid-19 test reports.
Once the reports are uploaded by the labs on the ICMR portal, teams deployed at the MCG segregate reports based on the four zones of the city. The list of the positive patient is shared with the nodal medical officer of that particular zone, who further coordinate with the PHC team (PHC) for a home visit or make a telephonic call to the person infected with Sars-cov-2.
According to health department officials, the issue of inadequate contact details is becoming a challenging issue. The initial details of verification are going missing. Most of them time, the address is incomplete. Further, there are incorrect phone numbers. Somebody getting tested in Gurugram shares his/her domicile address given in the ID card. All these are making it difficult for the team to trace such people and their high-risk contacts, who can potentially transmit the virus to others.
An ICMR study in April predicted that a Covid-19 patient can infect 406 people in 30 days if preventive measures such as social distancing are not implemented.
The district health department issued notices twice in the last two weeks to seven diagnostic labs in the city for inadequate contact details of the suspected cases. Dr Virender Yadav, chief medical officer (CMO), on Thursday said that strict action will be taken against people who are sharing wrong information to get themselves tested as it leads to data mismanagement.
“There are over 270 cases that could not be traced. People are getting tested multiple times; sometimes labs are also lax in taking complete details. All these factors are creating hindrances in controlling the infection,” he said.