Gurugram: Residents of The Palms form team, take onus of contact tracing

Residents of The Palms condominium in South City 1 have come together and formed a seven-member team to carry out contract tracing of people testing positive for

Residents of The Palms condominium in South City 1 have come together and formed a seven-member team to carry out contract tracing of people testing positive for the virus in their society on their own.

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Residents say they were forced to resort to this measure after concerned officials failed to turn up to carry out contact tracing exercise after a resident tested positive for Covid-19 on June 6.

“Last week, the first Covid-19 case in the condominium was detected. We subsequently informed authorities to take charge and start the contact tracing process. However, after no official from any of the concerned departments turned up for two days, perhaps due to the high load of Covid-19 cases, we started getting worried. We realised that some residents could have come in contact with the person and, hence, it was vital to start contact-tracing on an immediate basis,” said Brigadier (retired) Brijendra Singh, a member of Palms Apartment Owners Association (PAOA).

Singh said that one resident — Minakshi Tewari, who had last month undertaken a five-hour online contact tracing course from John Hopkins University — volunteered to help carry out the task.

“As time was running out, we decided to hand over the contact tracing responsibility to Tewari and put in place pre-emptive measures. She was soon able to identify those who came in contact with the Covid-19 patient and advised them to take necessary safety steps like quarantining themselves and disinfecting their premises. Just a day later, a second case was detected in the condominium, in another tower. But this time we were able to start contact tracing right away and saved crucial time in cautioning those who interacted with the person,” said Singh.

Singh said that in the first Covid-19 case in the condominium, officials from the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) turned up for sanitising and disinfecting purposes three days after the issue was reported. For the second case, no official from any public body has so far turned up at the premises.

Singh also gave the example of a domestic help who was identified during the contact tracing process and had returned to her native place in West Bengal, but was unwilling to self-quarantine. He said that the local administration in Dinajpur district, West Bengal, was informed about this development and they subsequently took necessary action.

Contacted, Tewari said that her daughter — who is studying infectious disease epidemiology at John Hopkins University at Baltimore, Maryland in the United States of America (USA) — told her last month to enrol for the five-hour course as a precautionary measure.

“My daughter had informed me about this course and I opted for it out of sheer curiosity. When authorities failed to turn up for the second day after the first Covid case was detected, I decided to volunteer for contact tracing. We realised there would be more such cases in the locality and it was important that a team for contact tracing is formed to limit the spread of the virus,” said Tewari.

Tewari said that so far six other residents have volunteered and completed the five-hour-long online course, and a team of seven members under the ‘crisis management team’ has been formed to look after the contact tracing process for future cases, if they occur in the condominium.

On June 4, divisional commissioner Ashok Sangwan directed HSVP to coordinate contact tracing of Covid-19 patients. Prior to this, the district health department used to carry out this task.

Bharat Bhushan Gogia, estate officer, HSVP declined to comment on the matter.