PMC traced seven contacts for every positive case as opposed to 50

The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has traced only seven contacts on an average for every positive Covid-19 case reported in the city

The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has traced only seven contacts on an average for every positive Covid-19 case reported in the city. This, despite the district collector’s order dated September 4, ordering the civic body to trace at least 50 contacts for every positive case. For every positive case, the state guidelines suggest that the local authority must trace the high-risk contacts, those who possibly came in close contacts and are at high risk, while the low-risk contacts are those who might be at a lesser risk. Contact tracing works as an effective mechanism to check the spread of the infection.

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As of February 6, as per the data shared by the PMC, the city had reported 1.92 lakh Covid-19 positive cases for which the civic body had traced only 25.91 lakh contacts including 6.46 lakh high-risk contacts and the remaining were low-risk contacts. High-risk contacts can include family members and also those with comorbidities who might have come in close contact with the patient while low-risk contact includes those that might have come in contact with the patients. The civic body has traced about 7.4 contacts for every positive case on an average since the first case was reported in the city.

This is far less than what the district collector Rajesh Deshmukh had ordered on September 4 when the pandemic was at its peak. The order stated that ‘civic bodies and rural administration has to trace at least 50 contacts for every single Covid-19 patient, which includes at least 20 high-risk contacts and 30 low-risk contacts. These 50 people must be tested either through Rapid Antigen Detection tests or RTPCR depending on their symptoms and ICMR guidelines. The high risk contacts will be institutionally quarantined at a Covid centre till results are awaited while low-risk contacts will be quarantined at home’.

The city’s contact tracing was earlier slammed by the state administration for being below the advised rate. With more cases being reported now the city’s positivity rate is also going up in the past few days. While the positivity rate was at 5%, its lowest in the past five weeks, it jumped up back to 7% between February 4 and 10 which is the highest since January 7. Dr Subhash Salunkhe, chairman, Maharashtra Communicable Diseases Prevention and Control Technical Committee, said, “We were expecting about 15-20 contacts to be traced and so the current number is at the lower end. However, given that the current machinery was involved in contact tracing, isolation and admissions in the earlier few months when the pandemic struck, now they are engaged with other things to do, including vaccination. So seven still seems like a good number, but we can do better.”