Civic bodies scramble to identify those who came in touch with corona patients

The people being traced are the ones who came in close contact with patients with confirmed cases.

Delhi’s three municipal corporations have mobilised more than 5,000 peripheral health workers employed with them, including domestic breeding checkers (DBCs) and malaria inspectors (MIs), to “trace friends, family members and work colleagues of the five people who have so far tested positive for the novel coronavirus 2019.

Municipalities have roped in more than 5,000 peripheral health workers to trace friends, family members and work colleagues of the five people who have so far tested positive (Sanchit Khanna/HT PHOTO)

The people being traced are the ones who came in close contact with patients with confirmed cases. “All the people, once traced, will need a 14 day home quarantine and training in self-hygiene to avoid spreading the infection,” said a senior north municipal officer.

So far, the North Delhi Municipal Corporation has discovered at least 160 contacts of a female advocate in Trinagar area who is admitted in Safdarjung Hospital and has tested positive for the virus, a senior official of the north civic body said.

“She was the fourth person to test positive for Covid-2019 in Delhi. This woman is the friend of the wife of a person who resides in Uttam Nagar. The man had visited Italy and later tested positive for the virus. The female patient evidently socialised a lot before she also fell ill and was brought to Safdarjung, which is why we have got a long list of people to check now,” said Dr Ashok Rawat, medical health officer of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation.

The man from Uttam Nagar, who returned from Italy, was the third person to test positive for Covid-19 in Delhi. The first confirmed case of the disease in the national Capital, also dubbed ‘patient zero’, was a man from Mayur Vihar in east Delhi.

The municipal peripheral health workers — including auxiliary nurse midwives and lady health visitors, were trained last week in surveillance work, following directions from the Union ministry of health and family welfare. The government has issued a “COVID-19 Containment Plan” which asks local agencies to cover each household in a containment zone of 3km and a buffer zone of 5 km around every confirmed positive case of the virus.

“Anganwadi workers/ auxiliary nurse midwives will perform active, daily house-to-house surveillance in containment zones…each covering 50 households. They will provide a mask to suspect cases and their caregivers and isolate (the case) at home till they are examined by a supervisory officer,” the order copy by the Union ministry, as shared by a municipality officer, reads.

“If they exhibit symptoms — like fever, cough, running nose, body ache and difficulty in breathing, which are all associated with Covid-2019 — their samples will also be collected,” said Dr Arun Yadav, director, hospital administration of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation.

“This is not easy work. People who have tested positive so far have given us a list of names of contacts that they have met in the last 10 days. We are trying to trace all of them, but these contacts shy away from meeting us. When our workers go to meet them they are turned away for the fear of social stigma. However, such people must cooperate with us so that we can restrict the spread of the disease as much as possible,” Yadav said.