Bengal, Tamil Nadu links of seven patients throw up a riddle for Odisha

BHUBANESWAR: The state government’s data on the travel history of at least five Covid-19 patients who are believed to have caught the infection in West Bengal has revealed that they tested positive over a month after they returned from that state. Similarly, the government has attributed the infection in two Balangir youths to their travel to Tamil Nadu, but data released by it shows that the men tested positive a month and a half after they returned from the state.
The five Bengal returnees tested positive after 30 to 45 days of their return. The Balangir youths were under home quarantine from March 18 to April 5 but tested positive on May 1.
A doctor of AIIMS Bhubaneswar said there could be two reasons for this riddle, assuming that the travel information provided by the patients is correct.
“First, the mapping of travel and contacts has not been done correctly. Second, the patients were infected because of local transmission, unrelated to the travel cited,” said Binod Patro, associate professor of community medicine at AIIMS Bhubaneswar. “The average incubation period of the virus is 14 days, which may go up to 21 days. If a person is testing positive one month after the supposed exposure, there is a missing link somewhere,” Patro added
Unless the missing link is found, the phenomenon of people testing positive long after completing their 14-day quarantine is bound to raise concern. “Either the complete history of the patients has not been elicited, or there is a source of local transmission that needs to identified, the associate professor said.
The government said contact tracing of patients was still on. “I have asked the team for a probe,” health secretary Nikunja Bihari Dhal said.
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