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Amid worries over new Covid strain, 60 +ve patients go untraceable in Bathinda
Health authorities have started approaching police to trace such patients to isolate them and contain virus spread
Amid high presence of the new UK strain, a more infectious variant of the virus, in positive patients across the state, the health authorities are facing it hard to trace infected patients who gave wrong phone numbers and incomplete addresses at the time of sampling.
The untraceable Covid patients have set the alarm bells ringing for the health authorities as 326 of the 401 samples from across the state, collected between January 1 and March 10 and sent to the National Institute of Virology, Pune, for genome sequencing, showed the presence of the new UK strain.
Bathinda, which has the highest active number of Covid cases in the southern Punjab districts, also has a maximum of 60 untraceable positive patients where seven were added on Thursday.
As per the official data, the district had only one untraceable case on February 28, which means the health department is unable to reach 59 such patients in the 25 days, who were tested positive for coronavirus.
Health experts say such individuals are posing a “public health risk” in the absence of strict rules of identity confirmation.
The health authorities of various districts have now started approaching the police to trace such patients to isolate them and contain virus spread.
Bathinda civil surgeon TS Dhillon said the issue came to the notice of the health team recently as officials could not contact them after they were found to be positive. He said the department on Wednesday decided to relook into each such case.
“This is a serious matter that patients furnish wrong contact details or remain inaccessible to the department for their health audit. It is crucial that individuals who tested positive are medically taken care of. The new stain of Covid is stated to be 70% more infectious and infected persons need isolation for larger public health interest,” he said.
Sources said during a video conferencing on Tuesday, the civil surgeons apprised the department high-ups of the worrying situation that is emerging across the state.
Dhillon said the department is considering asking for photo identity card details for more authenticated contact details of those who appear for testing.
With 521 active cases (230 added in last three days), Bathinda is emerging as the hotbed of coronavirus cases in the south Malwa region. Ninety nine new cases were added on Thursday.
Acknowledging a similar problem, Fazilka chief medical officer Kundan Kumar Pal said the civil and police administration has been given a list of four patients as there is a possible threat of infection spread from those withholding their real identities.
Presently, the individuals are asked their address, phone numbers and Aadhar number at the time of sampling and no documentary proof is attached with the sample.
“We faced a similar situation during the first wave of the pandemic outbreak in July-August last year too. The problem should be addressed strictly to curb the spread as even a single unidentified infected person could spread the disease to many,” said another health official.
