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31 Covid-19 cases outside quarantine centres in Odisha trigger concerns of community transmission
Most of Odisha’s positive cases over the last month or so could be traced to migrants returning from other states but Tuesday’s numbers have changed that.
For the first time since migrant workers started arriving in Odisha on May 1, the state on Tuesday reported 31 cases of local infections triggering apprehension among experts that community transmission may have set in.
The health and family welfare department said 146 Covid-19 cases were reported on Tuesday across the State taking the total to 2,245. Over 95 per cent of the total cases in Odisha have been reported from quarantine centres housing 115 migrant workers, several of whom have carried the disease from outside, however, 31 cases reported today were locals without any travel history.
This is the first time that such a large number of locals have tested positive since May 1- when the migrant workers started arriving in Odisha after the lockdown norms were eased. Since May 5, when the returning migrant workers started testing positive in a large number, the number of infections among locals has been limited to anything between 2 and 10 and on some days no local tested positive.
The Odisha government, too, has been indicating that there was no need to worry since the bulk of the cases were confined to quarantine centres through a successful execution of government strategy.
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But with 31 local infections on Tuesday, epidemiologist Binod Patra of AIIMS Bhubaneswar said it was not a good sign.
“Community infection may not have happened right now, but 31 local infections on a single day shows local infections have begun. Despite the official claim that the infection is under control as migrant workers are being quarantined, it may not be happening on the ground as many of the returning workers seem to be infecting locals by not obeying the guidelines. This would lead to an explosive situation this month and July,” he warned.
On Monday, Odisha announced stricter guidelines for 11 districts, including the six coastal districts that now account for 80 per cent of the total cases, ordering complete shutdown on Saturdays and Sundays. Though the order has been opposed by people all across the state, chief secretary Asit Tripathy said it was essential as cases will peak in Odisha in June and thus the next 3 weeks are crucial. As per the government, the shutdown was necessary to reduce social contact in 11 districts where most of the migrant workers have arrived.
However, virologist T Jacob John of CMC Vellore said there was no doubt that community transmission had started in Odisha.
“Community transmission happened the day migrant workers started arriving in Odisha in large numbers as there were media reports of many of them jumping quarantine centres and trains. Community transmission is occurring in Gujarat, Chennai, Maharashtra and Delhi since March. As 80 per cent of the infected people are asymptomatic, how would the government know that community transmission has not happened,” he asked.
The virologist said Odisha’s 4,000 tests a day was not enough to rule out community transmission as the state was only testing symptomatic people in quarantine centres.
“The government needs to test more people outside the quarantine centre and do more contact tracing to find out the extent of spread. But there is no doubt that community transmission has started in Odisha like other States,” he said.
But Dr Jayant Panda, technical advisor to the health department on Covid-19 matters denied the possibility of any community transmission in Odisha despite 31 local infections being reported. “The 31 cases that we found today were from the high risk contacts of the positive cases in the quarantine centres. So far there is no community transmission. As advised by the ICMR, we would do Sero tests among people to see whether community transmission has happened,” he said.
