Residents blame poor contact tracing for surge in Covid cases

Avneet Kaur

Jalandhar, August 25

Poor contact tracing of Covid patients is the main reason behind spurt in cases, claim residents. They said despite weekend curfew, there seems to be no respite, as over hundreds of persons were testing positive every day.

In the past five days, 622 cases have been reported in Jalandhar district. Moreover, the total number of patients that succumbed to the virus in the last five days was 27, taking the death toll tally to 147. Besides, the total number of infected cases stands at 5,516.

As per sources from the Civil Hospital, the health staff is dealing with the problems related to the data of patients. They said at times, the information about patients was incomplete or incorrect. Their phone numbers and addresses are incorrect and it takes time to find out who was residing where. It takes two to three days or even more to locate patients, as a result of which contact tracing is delayed.

One of the Rural Medical Officers (RMOs), said: “At present, the condition of Covid-19 in the city is out of the hands of the Civil Hospital or even administration. We are at a stage, where Covid-19 is exploding like anything and almost everyone is at risk of contracting the virus,” he said, adding that by the time health staff reaches the contacts of the infected patients, the damage is already done, as they have by that time further met scores of people.

No check on those getting

test done from pvt labs

As per information, there are hundreds of patients in the city undergoing home isolation, while the administration has no information about them. They said there were no stickers outside their homes and no one from the Health Department ever called them to know their contacts i.e. people they met before testing positive.

A Covid patient who tested positive last week only, said: “One of my friends tested positive after which I thought I, too, should get my test done. I took the certificate for Covid test from my family doctor and then called a private lab to collect sample from home. The next day, I received my report and I was positive. But what amazes me is that no one from the Health Department ever contacted me. I saw videos of recovered patients and have been following the same routine. Luckily, I am recovering now,” she said.

Data cell constituted

Meanwhile, to ensure vigorous tracing of at least 10 contacts of each Covid positive case as soon as possible, Deputy Commissioner Ghanshyam Thori on Tuesday constituted a data cell for the collection of information and data of contacts of a positive case and their immediate sampling by sharing the information with the Health Department instantly for breaking the chain of the virus transmission.

The cell, which would be headed by MC Joint Commissioner Inaayat, will comprise a team of around 40 members and four zonal supervisors to assist the nodal officer in preparing this important data. Presiding over a meeting with the officials, Deputy Commissioner accompanied by Additional Deputy Commissioner (Development) Vishesh Sarangal said contact tracing of patients was one of the vital tools to contain the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.

District reports Five more deaths

Jalandhar: Covid cases continue to rise in the district. On Tuesday, while five patients succumbed to the virus, 60 people were found infected. The death toll in the district has reached 147 and the number of infected cases have reached 5,516. As per the Health Department, the deceased patients were identified as Ramanand (65), a resident of New Grain Market; Ranu (58), a resident of Santokhpura; Mangat Rai (65) of Nakodar; Vijay Kumar (72) of new Defense Colony; Yogesh Kumst (59), a resident of Deep Nagar, Jalandhar Cantt. Doctor SP Dogra, owner of Dogra Hospital at Mahiran Gate also breathed his last on Monday night due to cardiac arrest. Former president of National Integrated Medical Association (NIMA), Dogra, had recently recovered from Covid. Sources said he had post Covid complications. TNS

61 test ve in Hoshiarpur

As many as 61 patients tested positive for Covid in the district on Tuesday, while two people died due to the virus. Civil Surgeon Dr Jasvir Singh said 61 new Covid-19 cases have been reported from Hoshiarpur district, of which 20 are from Bahadurpur, Hari Nagar, Sant Farid Nagar, Scheme No.1, Milap Nagar, Gautam Nagar and BSNL Colony, Piplanwala, Bhagwan Das Road and Anmol Nagar areas of the city. Apart from this, four cases have been found from Garhshankar, two from Mukerian, six from Dasuya, four from Hajipur, five from Tanda, two from Bhunga, four from Mustapur, while the remaining 14 cases were from different health blocks. A 61-year-old patient belonging to Paldi block died in a private hospital in Jalandhar due to Covid-19, while another 80-year-old Muggowal resident, admitted to Rajinder Hospital, Patiala, also succumbed to the virus. The total number of positive patients has increased to 1,145. The new samples of 1,440 persons with suspected flu-like symptoms in the district has brought the total samples to 52,498 and as per the reports received from the laboratory, 48,117 of them tested negative, while 3,253 reports were still awaited, while 78 are invalid and the number of deaths is 32 so far. The number of active cases in the district is 224 and 891 patients have recovered. OC