Patiala state’s best contact-tracing district

Karam Prakash

Tribune News Service

Patiala, May 8

To contain the spread of Covid-19, Patiala has quarantined 172 people so far for every single Covid-positive case, the highest in the state.

With this, Patiala has achieved the tag of the best contact-tracing district in the state until now. The district Health Department had home quarantined 15,885 persons till May 6, stated the state Health Department.

After Patiala, Ropar district quarantined 104 people for every Covid-positive patient. Amritsar, which has the highest Covid-positive cases in the state so far, had quarantined only 435 people; just two people per positive patient.

With this, Amritsar has the lowest number in quarantining people across the state. Amritsar is closely followed by Faridkot where only three people had been home-quarantined for every single patient.

Officials of the Health Department said the figures showed that they had put concerted efforts in contact-tracing. The officials claimed that it was the effective contact-tracing that made it possible to contain the spread of the virus in the district.

“Despite outbreak in Rajpura, we were able to break the chain there. We try to trace every possible contact of Covid-positive patients, including low-risk contacts,” said an official involved in contact-tracing.

Initially the department faced hurdles in contact-tracing because positive patients in several instances tried to hide their travel history.

In one such incident, a social worker in Patiala, who was tested Covid-positive, initially hid his travel histroy to Zirakpur. He had gone there to help his friend during the strict curfew restrictions.

But on the insistence of the Health Department, the social worker had to reveal the name of his friend, who later tested positive.

Patiala Civil Surgeon Dr Harish Malhotra said: “It was the result of the collective efforts of our dedicated staff that include district epidemiologist, nodal officer, Senior Medical Officers, ANMs and other staff who worked 24×7.”

Two more test positive for virus

• Two new cases were reported in Patiala on Friday, taking the tally of positive cases in the district to 101.
• Of the new cases, one is a Nanded returnee, who had earlier tested negative.
• The Patiala Health Department said the 50-year-old pilgrim, a resident of Dhanetta village in Samana block, was tested fo the second time because he had shown symptoms.
• The second positive patient was a 22-year-old woman from Rajpura. The Health Department said the patient was a contact of another positive patient from Rajpura.
• Patiala Civil Surgeon Dr Harish Malhotra said of the 148 samples collected on Thursday, only two had tested positive. Both positive patients would be admitted to the isolation facility of Govt Rajindra Hospital.