Gurugram: Over 10% Covid-19 patients going untraced due to incomplete contact details

More than 10% of Covid-19 cases confirmed by private labs in the city are going untraced due to incorrect contact details provided by people, causing an impact on

More than 10% of Covid-19 cases confirmed by private labs in the city are going untraced due to incorrect contact details provided by people, causing an impact on surveillance and contact tracing, officials said on Wednesday.

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The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG), which was earlier this week given the task to liaison with the private and government labs for Covid-19 test reports, has been facing trouble due to inadequate contact details of the suspected cases tested in private labs. According to the officials, there are 10 teams to trace such people and assistance from the local police is also being taken.

“Every day, we have at least 10-12% of such Covid-19 positive reports where initial details for verification are missing. The address is incomplete, there are incorrect phone numbers or somebody getting tested in Gurugram shares his/her domicile address given in the ID card. It becomes difficult for the team to trace such people and their high-risk contacts, who can potentially transmit the virus to others,” said Jaspreet Kaur, additional commissioner, MCG, who is also designated as officer for management of Covid-19 test reports.

According to her, 10 teams, comprising two members each, have been deployed to reach out to those people who have given correct mobile numbers but incomplete addresses. “Our teams coordinate with the primary health centres (PHCs) and the local police to trace such people in two to three days,” said Kaur.

The MCG additional commissioner said that in many cases, neither the physicians prescribing tests nor the private hospitals and labs involved in taking samples are taking complete address or contact details of the suspected patients. “These crucial details are missing on the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) portal where labs have to upload the test results,” she said.

A meeting was held with the lab representatives on Tuesday to discuss the matter, said Dr Jai Prakash, district surveillance officer. “The issue of incomplete contact details of patients was raised in the meeting with the labs functional in Gurugram,” he said.

Currently, six private labs and three government labs in Rohtak, Sonepat and Nalhar are taking samples from Gurugram.

HT tried reaching out to two private laboratories for comment, but they did not respond. the others could not be reached.

Residents are even giving their samples at private labs of Delhi, accredited by the ICMR. An ICMR study in April predicted that a Covid-19 patient can infect 406 people in 30 days if preventive measures such as social distancing are not implemented.

Since Gurugram in the past 10 days has seen a record surge in the coronavirus cases, Ashok Sangwan, divisional commissioner, assigned different government departments for the management of Covid-19 situation in the city. MCG is designated to handle test reports.

Once the reports are uploaded by the labs on the ICMR portal, teams deployed at the MCG segregate reports based on the four zones of the city. The list of the positive patient is shared with the nodal medical officer of that particular zone, who further coordinate with the PHC team (PHC) to home visit or make a telephonic call to the person infected with Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.

Earlier this week, Haryana home minister Anil Vij had written a letter to the Union health minister, Dr Harsh Vardhan, mentioning that labs in Delhi, which are taking Covid-19 samples of Haryana residents, are not sharing reports properly with the authorities concerned, resulting in delay of contact tracing and surveillance activities, besides creating mismatch on ICMR portal and state portal.

On May 31, the Director General Health Services (DGHS) Haryana issued notices to 18 private labs of Delhi, approved by ICMR for doing Covid-19 testing in the national capital, for taking samples of Haryana patients without keeping Haryana health department in the loop.