Average 4.5 contacts per patient in the last week

With the increase in the number of COVID-19 cases in the state, the COVID-19 Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) recommends that for every patient, 20 contacts are required to be detected in districts where positivity rates above 1% is.

However, according to data provided by the Karnataka State COVID-19 War Room, not a single contact has been identified in 45.3% of the cases recorded in the previous week. The data also shows that in the last one week, on average, 4.5 contacts have been detected for every patient. For a total of 5,868 patients who tested positive between March 8 and March 14, 12,298 primary contacts and 13,995 secondary contacts were detected.

According to the data, the best contact tracing has been done in Gadag, where for every patient, 50.9% of the contacts have been detected in the previous week. Kodagu and Chamarajanagar are second and third with 29.1% and 24.9%. Data in four districts – Haveri, Koppal, Raichur and Vijayapur show that not a single contact of a patient has been detected.

However, in many of these instances, the local administration detected and isolated the contacts and also sent their samples for testing but they may not have updated it on the app. Munish Moudgil, who is in charge of the State War Room, said that the data contact tracing was as per the entry made on the app, adding that the details should be entered on the app as manual claims cannot be accepted.

Member of TAC, Giridhar R. Babu said that health workers were busy in testing and vaccinations. “In addition, all other health services have resumed. It would not be unreasonable to expect them to contact you at this stage. It is advised that people from other wings of the BBMP be involved in contact tracing. This can be done at the level of urban primary health center and decentralized works in coordination with other departments, ”he said. He said that individuals from other departments need to be mobilized when required by the BBMP.