Concerns over cluster spread fade

Thiruvananthapuram: A good percentage of samples collected from containment zones in six panchayats in the district has yielded negative for Covid-19, slightly easing the nerves of authorities. Over 300 samples had to be collected from Nellanad, Pullampara and Vamanapuram panchayats covering over 90 wards after three remand prisoners tested positive for Covid-19. The chance confirmation of all these cases, coupled with an extensive travel history, had raised an alarm over apprehensions of a possible cluster outbreak.
All wards in Nellanadu, Pullampara, Pulimath, Manickal, Vamanapuram and Mudakkal panchayats were declared containment zones as part of intensive contact tracing and surveillance. The authorities conducted sentinel surveillance in the area not just focusing on primary and high-risk contacts but also on people who visited primary health centres with influenza-like illness and respiratory infection. The officials said that the samples of high-risk contacts of the patients have been negative and other contacts have also tested negative, nullifying chances of a cluster spread or community transmission.
The pattern has been more or less similar for Pothencode where Abdul Azeez had died of Covid in March. When his source of infection could not be traced, the team had embarked on containment and extensive collection of samples from over 230 contacts and none of them tested positive, ruling out chances of cluster spread.
The authorities had done repeated swab collection in some cases after five days, considering the time period for onset of symptoms. None of the high-risk contacts had shown any symptoms and their results have also returned negative.
In the case of an ambulance driver who tested positive at Navaikulam, the results of primary contacts, including his family members, have been negative. The officials said that the district has been able to check transmission via contacts of positive cases to a considerable extent so far.
In March, three persons acquired infection through contact of a positive case and in April, two persons contracted infection through contact. However, there was a strong possibility of false positives in some cases, a reason by which the epidemiological investigation team could not trace the source of infection.
So far, six persons have been infected by contact between May and June and in majority of the cases the source remains unknown. While officials are relieved that there are minimal chances of cluster spread, the source of infection among recently-infected cases continues to remain unknown. There have also been reports about doubts over positivity of Father K G Varghese who recently died of Covid. Although there was an equivocal opinion regarding the positivity, confirmatory test could not be carried out since the patient was dead before the first test results were received.