Random testing by Gampaha doctors paved way to identify new cluster
The country’s attention turned towards Minuwangoda when a 39-year-old supervisor at the factory of Brandix Apparel sought treatment for fever, cough and chest pain at the Gampaha Hospital.
“We did random sampling and took an RT-PCR test. That’s how we caught the infection in this patient,” said Gampaha’s Consultant Respiratory Physician Dr. Bodhika Samarasekera.
The patient had sought treatment at the Preliminary Care Unit (PCU) on September 30 and the doctors there had referred her to Dr. Samarasekera’s ward on suspicions that she was having pneumonia. There were no suspicions of COVID-19. A chest X-ray indicated there was no pneumonia and when she complained of chest pain, an ECG ruled out a heart issue.
“But in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic and the airport being in our district, we have been alert and have been performing random sampling of those who come in from the community,” says Dr. Samarasekera, who with his Medical Officer, Dr. Manjula Nanayakkara, took the sample, sent it for testing and on October 2 discharged the patient as she was not sick.
He says that this patient was probably not the first (index) patient in this cluster. But this is different to the Kandakadu cluster which was limited to those at the Treatment & Rehabilitation Centre, its staff and those who visited them. Kandakadu was contained. Here, people who were asymptomatic may have gone on trips, visited others’ homes not just in the area but all over the country. This is why there could be pockets of COVID-19 outside this area.
Meanwhile, the Sunday Times learns from other sources that it had been on September 27 that another employee of the same factory had sought treatment for fever, cough and cold at a clinic run after hospital-hours by a doctor working at the Gampaha Hospital. She had returned on the 28th for further treatment but having got better come once again on the 30th to get a medical certificate.
Now this doctor has tested positive and is in hospital, while health staff at the Gampaha Hospital who came into contact with him are in quarantine.