Authorities should concentrate on those infected with Covid-19, do rigorous contact tracing

Dear Editor,

The Coronavirus has spread throughout the country. Every day more infected persons are being identified and more deaths are recorded. The airports are being opened and you do not have any control of the spread on the virus internally. You are asking for trouble.

You have 1000 persons ( 500 police and 500 army personnel) involved in “soft enforcement” for the Covid-19 virus. You do realise that “soft enforcement” is an oxymoron. Worse yet, you are using personnel from the Police Force and the Defence Force. I do not believe these people will be experts in “soft enforcement”.

What exactly have you established will be the outcome of this exercise? Pray tell. By what percent or quantity will you be able to reduce the spread? Will you be reporting progress results from time to time? I would recommend that you re-orient these efforts.

Instead of having 1000 persons performing soft enforcement on 750,000 citizens, may I suggest that you direct their energies to those persons already infected with Covid-19. They should help them with their isolation, direct other social services to meet their needs and do contact tracing and identify additional persons to be isolated and also to send suspected persons for testing. Now this process could use the services of personnel from the Police Force and

Defence Force.

Right now you have 843 persons isolating at home. These are the potential spreaders. Concentrate your resources here. Help them isolate effectively. Help them with masks for themselves and family. Help them with food if needed. Moved them if they cannot isolate in their home environment. Contact trace them; you might find other infected persons. Help them with their home isolation. Direct those persons who have no symptoms of infection but could be at risk to be tested; effectively nipping the spreading in the bud.

If we are capable of handling 300 tests per day, then it will not be difficult for us to direct this capacity to those identified through the contact tracing process.

I am hard pressed to understand why as a country with such a small population, we are letting this virus spread get away from us.

Once you have this working smoothly, you can open up the economy and let the remaining 749,000 go about their daily lives with mandatory mask wearing in public. You will not need the police to enforce mandatory mask wearing. Educate the public, and the public will police for you because they will want to stay protected.

The Sunday Stabroek article of October 18, 2020, titled `Caregivers, other relatives not tested despite death of woman with Covid-19’, is an example of what is wrong with our Pandemic Management Systems.

These are the salient reported facts: 1. The woman was sick and being treated at home by relatives. Her condition was deteriorating and she was moved to a health facility. She was then taken to GPHC.

2. She was tested on admission and housed in the GPHC Covid-19 ICU.

3. As per the Death Certificate issued she either died because of Covid19 infection or the Covid-19 virus was a contributory factor in her death. In any case, she was infected with Covid-19 at the time of death; while being treated in hospital.

The following are the red flags from this unfortunate event.

1. It is unknown whether the patient had been infected prior to admission or after admission while in hospital. This is not the first time that reports are coming from the people that their relatives are contracting Covid-19 in hospital, and subsequently die.

2. There was no contact tracing or testing of the caregivers, relatives, friends, neighbours and other persons who would have come into contact with the Covid-19 person.

What is apparent from this incident are the following:

1. GPHC Covid-19 protocols are not working. Virus spread could be happening at the hospital itself.

2. There is no organization or systems in place to contact trace and test for each positive case.

The hospital administration should really have a closer look at what is going on at the GPHC. Maybe an audit of their protocols using past cases will be helpful in identifying control and safety gaps.

Please stay safe and let us hope for the best.