PUNE The central team during a visit to the district has found that although enough contact tracing is done the team on the field is not testing as per protocol.
In view of the rising number of Covid cases, Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is tracing at least ten contacts for every new case.
The team following its visit last week to the district noted that although enough contacts are traced in most cases only family members are tested and on the very next day as opposed to the guidelines proposed by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
A false negative on the very next day could lead to possible suspects roaming freely and spreading the infection, said the expert committee.
While PMC has increased its contact tracing to about ten contacts for every new case the district collector in his earlier letter had said that about 30 contacts including 20 high risk and ten low-risk contacts should be tested.
Dr Kalpana Baliwant, assistant health officer, said, “We have been asked to trace 20 contacts for every new Covid patient and we are doing that. About 15 high-risk contacts and five low-risk contacts. We are ensuring that each ward tests about 20 contacts for every new case.”
{{/usCountry}}Dr Kalpana Baliwant, assistant health officer, said, “We have been asked to trace 20 contacts for every new Covid patient and we are doing that. About 15 high-risk contacts and five low-risk contacts. We are ensuring that each ward tests about 20 contacts for every new case.”
{{/usCountry}}On Tuesday, PMC tested reported 1,925 new cases and traced over 19,000 contacts out of which 4,020 are high-risk contacts and 15,366 are low-risk contacts. This brings the number to about ten contacts per new case. Also, 264 contacts of index cases were reported to test positive for Covid.
The health ministry secretary Rajesh Bhushan in his letter to the state department wrote, ‘For every positive case, at least 20 to 30 close contacts (including family contacts, social contacts’ workplace contacts and other casual contacts) need to be promptly traced and tracked. The field staff engaged in contact tracing requires training/reorientation and develop skills in interpersonal communication for contact tracing. The contacts of a positive case should be tested strictly in accordance with the ICMR guidelines (five-ten days after exposure).”
The team remarked, “The case-contact ratio is more than 1:20. Though it appears high, a deep dive into the methodology of contact tracing revealed that the main concept of contact tracing was not clearly understood by the field level staff, who were mainly listing the immediate family and neighbourhood contacts, for the sake of listing. The high-risk contacts in workplace settings, social settings and family settings were not investigated and listed. The monitoring of the contacts was limited to conveying the message to the high-risk contacts for testing the very next day (and not as per the ICMR guidelines).”
The report further said that for every case at-least 20-30 contacts need to be traced and tracked. Contact tracing should focus on family contacts, social contacts, workplace contacts and other casual contacts like vendors among others. The field staff now engaged in contact tracing requires training/reorientation and develop skills on interpersonal communication for contact tracing.