Third wave: Mandatory testing of all close contacts of Covid patients in Mumbai

On Thursday, Mumbai reported 397 new Covid-19 cases, the highest daily count since July 28, when the daily count was 404

With the gradual rise in the daily count of Covid-19 cases, the doubling rate has plunged by 232 days in the past 10 days — from 2,057 on August 18 to 1,825 on August 27 — indicating the start of a third wave. Against this backdrop, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has changed its contact tracing policy. Ward officers have been instructed to mandatorily test all close contacts of Covid positive patients immediately to avoid transmission of the infection amid relaxations in Covid-19 restrictions.

Beneficiaries in the above-18 age group get inoculated against Covid-19 at Bharatratna Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Municipal General Hospital, Kandivli. (HT PHOTO)

As HT reported on August 11, municipal commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal along with Kakani, in a review meeting of the health department, decided to increase their contact tracing from 10 to 20 per infected patient. However, this week, the target of contact tracing was increased to 25 per infected patient.

The city has been witnessing a steady rise in cases for the past few days. On August 17, Mumbai had reported 198 cases and 283 infections were registered on August 18 and 19. The next day, 322 cases were recorded. On August 21, 259 new patients were identified. The following day, 294 cases were recorded, which plunged to 226 the next day. On August 24, the daily count rose to 270, which surged to 343 cases on August 25. On Thursday, Mumbai reported 397 new Covid-19 cases, the highest daily count since July 28, when the daily count was 404.

As per BMC data, the number of daily tests dropped from over 50,000 to around 30,000 a few days last week. With the reopening of establishments like shops, hotels and malls, BMC has instructed the ward officers to test all the close contacts of the infected patients immediately, even if they don’t show symptoms.

“So far, we used to test close contacts after 4-5 days if they develop any symptoms. Till then, they were being instructed to get home quarantined. But now, we have instructed ward officers to test them immediately, without any delay,” said Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner, BMC. “The movement of the people has increased with the relaxation. So, we don’t want any asymptomatic patient to infect others in the crowd,” he added

During the outbreak of the second wave, the civic body was blamed for inadequate contact tracing. Though the Union Health Ministry advised tracking 30 close contacts per patient, between January and February, the civic body traced only 4-5 close contacts for every patient.

“With the rise of Delta Plus variants, along with vaccination, BMC needs to focus on contact tracing. Or else, it can lead to an influx of another pandemic wave,” said Dr Ravikant Singh, founder of the NGO — Doctors for You.

But civic officials often hit a roadblock in contact tracing due to improper information shared by the patients.

“Many times, infected patients don’t reveal the names of their close contacts. In fact, some families don’t even inform their buildings or societies about their infection. These problems are most common in non-slum areas,” said Dr Bhagyashree Kapse, ward officer, R-Central that covers Borivli.

Also, instruction has been given to keep an eye on families and societies where more than one Covid-19 patient is recorded. “If any family or society is recording high transmission rate, we are sending their samples for genome sequencing to find out any possible infection from Delta or Delta plus variants,” said Kakani.