New Delhi: With Covid spreading in Delhi at an unprecedented pace owing to the fast-dominating Omicron variant, officials here on contact tracing duties are facing an especially tough challenge identifying possible contacts of positive patients given that many are giving them incomplete information and hiding crucial information in some cases.
While government officials have pressed into service surveillance teams to track contacts of positive patients, many on duty have now said that it is becoming more and more impossible to trace contacts as the variant spreads in
the community.
According to officials engaged in the exercise, the most common problem they face is forgetfulness among people. They are unable to provide a proper account of their activities during the period they contracted the disease, the officials said. An official from the New Delhi district, on the condition of anonymity, said that contact tracing always depends on what a person is able to tell.
Moreover, the official added that if anyone who is infected with the virus had travelled by Delhi Metro then it becomes a futile exercise to even try and identify possible contacts. "We have to trace at least 30 contacts of the person. But most of the time, the contact tracing remains limited to immediate family members, their office contacts and their neighbours," he said.
Another official at the office of the Southeast District Magistrate said that since most of the people are asymptotic and given the fast spread capability of Omicron variant, immaculate contact tracing and testing becomes crucial in containment exercises and is now becoming more and more difficult.
"If we ask COVID-19 positive persons which shops they visited in any particular market or whom they met, they are mostly unable to give these details accurately. They either don't remember places or shops they visited or they simply give incomplete information. This makes the contact tracing difficult,' the official lamented.
Another official of the West District said that sometimes people deliberately hide information and provide incomplete contact details.
The official added that in such cases authorities generally assume the Covid positive person must have come in contact with people living in the same locality so as a precautionary measure all neighbours and relatives are advised to observe home isolation for seven days.