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Officials trace nine cases to Covid-19 patient, hit a wall
Jamshedpur civil surgeon, Dr Maheshwar Prasad, however, said the Tube Division employee from Kamdhenu Apartment was still not revealing his travel and contact history.
Jamshedpur (East Singhbhum) district administration is now focussed at contact tracing to break the chain of coronavirus infection after nine persons have tested positive after coming in contact with a Covid-19 positive patient with unknown source of infection, officials said on Monday.
“During contact tracing of Tata Steel’s Tube Division employee, who tested positive recently, it was found that nine more persons were also infected. His source of contracting coronavirus infection is still not known and our surveillance team is working hard to find it. He, however, has a medical history of visiting Tata Main Hospital (TMH) on June 6 and 10, before testing positive. There’s no threat of community transmission in the city as of now because that happens when the source of infection is conclusively not known of any positive patient,” Ravishankar Shukla, Jamshedpur deputy commissioner (DC), said Monday.
Jamshedpur civil surgeon, Dr Maheshwar Prasad, however, said the Tube Division employee from Kamdhenu Apartment was still not revealing his travel and contact history.
“It is still not known as to where or from whom he contacted the infection. We have deputed IDSP district nodal officer Dr Asad to trace his travel history, if any, and contacts so that his source of infection can be ascertained. Dr Asad met with him on Monday personally and we hope to have a breakthrough shortly,” said Dr Prasad.
Jamshedpur had 322 Covid-19 patients, of which 172 have recovered so far , leaving 150 active cases till Sunday night.
The said Covid-19 patient had tested positive on Wednesday after which samples of his family members were collected on Thursday and three of his relatives tested positive on Friday. “Three more Tube Division employees – found during the contact tracing exercise– tested positive on Saturday. Three relatives of these three Tube Division workers tested positive on Sunday, making it 10 patients on a single link,” added Dr Prasad.
The administration has collected samples of the domestic maid working in the flat of N-1 Tube Division employee and contact tracing exercise was currently on for the two permanent Tube Division employees and a contract employee and their three relatives who tested positive on Sunday.
Tube Division has also sealed the canteen, toilet and common passage used by these four positive employees for 48 hours.
Among the 13 Covid-19 patients detected in Jamshedpur on Sunday, 10 didn’t have travel history, taking the total number of positive cases without travel history to 17 in the city.
Two of the 13 positive patients on Sunday had a travel history of Delhi, while another had returned from Mumbai.
Seven members of a family from Baheragora also tested positive on Sunday.
One of the family members, however, has a travel history of Tamil Nadu and he was quarantined in Baragariya quarantine centre in Baheragora block of the district.
His test report came positive after he was released from the quarantine centre following completion of 14-day quarantine period.
All his six relatives were brought to the city late on Sunday night and admitted to Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College Covid-19 ward.
