To break the chain of spreading COVID-19 virus, Punjab Health Department has braced up its efforts for contact tracing drive under which 7.6 contacts of every COVIxxxxxD person have been traced and tested in the past week. Punjab is far ahead from many states like Himachal Pradesh, and Bihar in terms of contact tracing.
“Tracing of contact persons, including all household members, social contacts contact at workplace, and early sampling or testing are significant ways to curb further spread of the virus till vaccination hasn’t come,” said the state Health and Family Welfare Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu on Sunday. He said that to accomplish this target, district level teams (comprising various departments) designated by the Deputy Commissioners are working on war footing across the state. A Nodal officer of the rank of Additional Deputy Commissioner has reviewed the progress of teams deputed at urban zones. In addition to this, block level teams have also been formed under SDMs to cover rural areas coordinating with the respective Senior Medical Officer. Initially, when a case comes positive, the source of infection may not be known immediately as the patient may not recall the people met and places visited, said the Minister.
Adding that with repeated interviews, we have been able to trace infection in most cases.
Sharing figures regarding contact tracing in the last seven days (from September 20 to 26), Sidhu said that Amritsar district leads in Punjab with the achievement of tracing 9.7 contact persons of COVID patients, followed by Jalandhar and Hoshiarpur with 9.2 and 9.0 respectively.
“Nine districts of Gurdaspur, Patiala, Pathankot, Faridkot, Sangrur, Kapurthala, Mukatsar, Tarn Taran and Fatehgarh Sahib have also traced above eight contacts of every corona positive patient. Soon, Punjab would achieve the hundred percent target of contact tracing,” he said.
Underscoring action being taken to counter rumours and stigma attached to pandemic, Sidhu said that extensive awareness activities were being conducted such as regular interviews of experts and CORONA survivors have been released on social media platforms to provide accurate information about the disease and ways to prevent it.
Sidhu said that teams of the Health Department have been continuously working round the clock since March. He said that around 1400 medical and paramedical staff of the health department tested positive and nine deaths reported so far.
