Covid-19: Rising local cases worry Odisha
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BHUBANESWAR: As many as 182 local Covid-19 positive cases (the ones not in quarantine) have so far been detected between June 1 and June 15, which is an indication that virus has spread to other people from the primary contacts.
This is a bigger worry for the state as every day, some local cases are being reported. In case of Covid positive cases being reported from the quarantined people, the contact is easily attributable (such as returnees from outside or close contacts of returnees) but in case of local, it is not so. Local cases have been termed as secondary contacts, who are suspected to have contracted the disease from the primary ones.
Highest 29 local cases were reported on a single day on June 12 followed by second highest of 18 cases on June 14 in the past 15 days.
In May, there were hardly any local cases reported, an indication that before the cases spiked, the state didn’t report positive cases beyond quarantined people.
The local contacts are just close to 5 per cent of total positive cases 4,055 (till June 15), which is significant but alarming as the cases were spread out, said Binod Patro, associate professor of community medicine at AIIMS.
“Had the total local cases been found from one or two localities, that would have made us to think that it has spread to communities. It is still under very much under control. The only difficulty is that if more local cases come, the government should test all the quarantined people and take steps to aggressively launch survey to find out updated health status of people,” he explained.
Notably, the state government has ordered massive campaign for door-to-door surveillance so that health mapping of each household irrespective of vulnerable pockets can be carried out. This is expected to help reduce local cases as significant number of such cases was found among people, who somehow came in contact with the primary contacts.
“The health mapping at the micro level will help reduce secondary infections. This will also make people become more cautious,” said a health expert.
Two days ago, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation formed Sachetak teams to send them to all the localities for direct interaction with the communities to generate awareness about Covid-19.
The Sachetak teams, 30 members in each of the 67 wards comprising members of Biju Yuva Vahini, Self Help Groups and NGOs, have started demonstrating as to how to wear mask and gloves and how to maintain hand hygiene. The kits the teams have been provided contain 25 masks and equal numbers of hand gloves (for demonstrative purpose only) and hand sanitisers.