Faridabad to test contacts of patients after 4 days

Vishakha Chaman | TNN | Apr 21, 2020, 07:20 IST

Faridabad: After the primary and secondary contacts of Covid-19 patients are identified, the health department and the district administration have decided to give a four-day window before testing them.
The move comes after Faridabad, in its biggest single-day spike, reported nine cases on Sunday. Seven of the samples had initially come out negative for Covid-19, but turned positive in the second round of testing. Among the seven patients are six Tablighi Jamaat members and the wife of a chemist shop owner who had earlier tested positive.
“Most of the new cases had initially tested negative. When their samples were sent for a second round of testing, they returned positive. It was decided not to send the samples of primary and secondary contacts immediately, but to wait for at least four days. If the first sample comes negative, people tend to stop taking precautions,” said a district administration official.
Faridabad deputy commissioner Yashpal Yadav, who chaired a meeting of the crisis management committee on Monday, said primary and secondary contacts of Covid-19 patients will first be quarantined and regularly monitored for a few days before their swab samples are sent for testing. Several mobile teams are screening people for symptoms, he added.
Faridabad reported its first case on March 20. The total number of cases has now touched 42.