Another big spike, Haryana case tally crosses 8,000
CHANDIGARH: Eighteen patients lost their lives to coronavirus disease (Covid-19) on Tuesday in Haryana, increasing the death toll to 118. The virus infected 550 people of 20 districts in the past 24 hours, the health department bulletin stated. Not only the state witnessed the most number of deaths due to Covid-19 in a day on Tuesday, it also recorded the biggest single-day spike with 550 fresh cases.
Until Tuesday evening, the state had 8,272 cases of Covid-19.
CHANDIGARH: Infected persons under home quarantine in Haryana better stay put in their homes as their movements are being tracked round the clock to prevent them from spreading the disease.An asymptomatic infected person or those having mild symptoms are eligible for home isolation, as per the Union health ministry guidelines. However, keeping a tab on the movements of such patients and making sure they adhere to strict self-isolation at all times remains a continuous challenge.
Using the mobile phone location data and satellite-based global positioning system (GPS), the Covid Quarantine Alert System (CQAS) notifies the enforcement authorities every time a patient under watch makes a violation. The tracking system works even if the patient has not installed Aarogya Setu app on his mobile device.
Every day, the state government receives hundreds of alerts from National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) about Covid-19 patients and their primary contacts breaching the geofence, a virtual perimeter around a geographical location.
“The alerts are conveyed to the district authorities. Such patients are then approached – by cops making phone calls as well doing physical checks – to emphasize home isolation protocol,” said a top official.
Additional chief secretary (health) Rajeev Arora said the use of technology in tracking patients is imperative to their efforts to break the chain of transmission.
National Health Mission (NHM) director Prabhjot Singh explained that home latitude and longitude of Covid-19 patients put under home isolation to monitor their movements is recorded. “Once a person jumps the quarantine and breaches the 300-metre radius of geo-fence, the violation gets logged using the mobile tower location data. The system triggers an alarm to the authorities on the basis of location of the patient,” Singh said.
HISTORY TRACKER AND HOTSPOT PREDICTOR
The state government is also using another web-based platform ITIHAAS to check the travel history of patients and identify potential hotspots. “Mobile tower locations enable us to find out how much time a patient or a suspect has spent in a particular area. It helps us make projections about a potential hotspot. Intensive house-to-house surveillance in that area is started,” Singh said.