Contact tracing remains poor in Punjab amid second Covid wave

At a time when Punjab is battling the second wave of the pandemic, the state health department is struggling to break the Covid-19 transmission chain by tracing all the contacts of the positive patients.

Contact tracing—the practice of identifying all those who had come in contact with a positive patient—is one of the major Covid-19 control methods. However, besides treatment and testing, Punjab is also lacking in maintaining the contact tracing of every Covid-19 patient.

According to the Union government norms, at least 30 persons should be tested after every Covid-19 patient but the state health department is managing to trace only 17 people per patient. In many districts, the contact tracing numbers are as low as 5-8 contacts per positive patient.

“When the health teams try to ask the patients about their contacts, they start misbehaving. People are reluctant to reveal the names of their family members and friends as they think the health department will forcibly take them to hospital and will get them tested. Despite the hurdles, we are tracing 10-15 people per patient,” said Patiala civil surgeon Dr Satinder Singh.

According to the health department data, only 4-5 people were being traced in Punjab against every positive patient, against the target of 10, during the infection spike in September last year.

An Amritsar-based health official, on the condition of anonymity, said: “The district is recording over 300 fresh cases daily, but the health department teams are only testing family members who are living in the same house. The patients are not being asked about their visits and the gathering they had attended before catching the virus.”

“As people do not reveal their contacts, special teams have been constituted with the officials of district administration and police to improve the situation. The teams will ask positive patients to give names of all those persons who came in his or her contact in the last few days. We are tracing 15 people after every positive patient,” said Amritsar civil surgeon Dr Charanjit Singh.

Focus on treatment, testing

State nodal officer for Covid-19 Dr Rajesh Bhaskar said: “At present, we are tracing 17 people after every positive patient but we are trying to achieve our target of at least 20 people per patient. Many times, housewives and elderly people get infected with the virus and their contacts remain low as they meet very a few people. Till last month, we could only trace 14 people per patient but we are improving on this control measure.”

“Among other districts, Mohali is leading as 20 people per patient are being traced, followed by Ludhiana with 18 people per patient, Barnala with 17 and Jalandhar with 16. Other districts are trying to improve. At present, our focus is to provide best treatment to the Covid patient. We are increasing our daily testing, which also plays a major role in breaking the virus chain. At present, we are testing over 40,000 people per day. After treatment and testing, we keep our focus on contact tracing,” Dr Bhaskar further added.

“The state health department has given full authority to district administrations to make containment and micro-containment zones, which is also helping Punjab to control the spread. It acts like a local lockdown and is being implemented effectively. More than 100 micro-containment zones have been made in the state,” he said.