Odisha government tracks mobile phone usage to trace Bengal returnees
BHUBANESWAR/KORAPUT: Besides using feedback from panchayat representatives on those who have returned recently from outside the state, the government is actively tracking people with recent travel history through their mobile phones to ensure that nobody escapes Covid-19 surveillance. Such people, once traced, are being kept in quarantine for 14 days.
The government has so far tracked more than 2900 who have come from West Bengal alone on or after March 25. This was done after 33 people who returned from the neighbouring state tested positive for the virus. Barring Nuapada, the returnees are spread across 29 of the 30 districts.
Shalini Pandit, mission director, National Health Mission, Odisha, on Thursday wrote to the district administrations to locate such returnees, home quarantine them and send their samples for testing.
“Phones which were active in West Bengal before March 25 and are active in Odisha after that were tracked. Data of all these have been shared by the government with the district administrations to check the health condition of those who have returned and quarantine them,” a senior government official said. The government would follow a similar strategy to track people travelling through the state after the lockdown ends, a government source said.
The Koraput district administration on Friday started tracking 44 people, including five BSF personnel, who had been to West Bengal after March 25. “They will be kept under home quarantine and their samples will be sent for tests,” said Makrand Beura, chief district medical and public health officer, Koraput.
Balasore saw 772 people return from West Bengal after March 25 while Bhadrak and Jajpur witnessed 242, and 329, respectively. The government has been concentrating aggressively in its containment strategy in the three districts of Balasore, Bhadrak and Jajpur following a spurt in the number of cases there. While Bhadrak has reported 16 positive cases, Jajpur has seen 12 and Balasore 10.
“We have been carrying out contact-tracing, sample collection and testing in the three districts of Balasore, Bhadrak and Jajpur because of the cases there. There is no such situation elsewhere,” health secretary Nikunja Bihari Dhal said.
These apart, 238 people have been traced in Khurda district of which Bhubaneswar is a part. “We are appealing to people with recent travel history to get themselves registered either in the government portal or by calling up the helpline number 104,” commissioner of police Sudhanshu Sarangi said.
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