Ggm: Contacts of 1/3rd patients yet to be traced

Gurugram: With Gurugram now regularly reporting over 100 new cases daily, contact tracing is proving to be a major challenge for authorities here, with public officials now saying that they do not have contact tracing details of 33 per cent of COVID-19 cases detected in the city so far.

Of the more than 7,300 cumulative cases in the city, contact tracing information of 2,380 patients is yet to be determined by health officials dealing with the pandemic. Officials added that they have been able to effectively trace contacts of 67 per cent cases — 4,925 cases.

To start with, there are still substantial numbers of patients, who out of fear or stigma are refusing to provide accurate information about their symptoms and places or people they might have come in contact with. Subsequently, officials of the district administration have made amendments in their procedure in order to gather the right information about patients.

There are also complaints that a large number of patients who after knowing they have contracted the contagious disease try to remove their phone contacts so that they can avoid being traced. Loopholes in surveillance by health workers are also being considered as one of the major factors for such a failure in contact tracing. An online portal has also been created to create a digital record of all the households being surveyed.

A new challenge that has emerged for the Gurugram District Administration has been a massive increase in the number of cases in rural areas of Gurugram and surveillance in these areas is not yet being prioritised by officials, leading to the sporadic spread of the virus.

The surge in the number of cases in Sohna and Manesar prompted the authorities to classify them as large outbreak zones recently, however, this surge has taken officials by surprise. New mechanisms are being created where facilities of testing, tracing and treatment are also being enhanced in rural and far-flung areas of Gurugram.