As cases surge, contact tracing poses a challenge for officials

Coimbatore: Contact tracing is getting tougher for health officials as Covid-19 cases are going up by more than 1,000 cases a day in the state.
A classic case of the challenge faced by the contact tracing field staff was a Nagercoil man, who reached the southern town without an e-pass. He travelled from Mumbai to Pune on road, took a flight to Bengaluru, another flight to Trichy where he stayed in a hotel and boarded a train to Nagercoil the next day. The officials tested him at the railway station in Nagercoil and found him positive. But till date they are not sure of the number of people he had come into contact with during his stay in Trichy and train travel.
“We don’t know whether we will be able to trace all the contacts in this case,” said a health officer.
In yet another instance, two men from Chennai visited Tuticorin for a funeral recently. After the funeral, they tested positive, sending health staff in a scurrying to trace everyone who attended the event. Out of the 100 people who were traced and tested, 35 have tested positive so far. Officials are not sure if they have managed to trace the people, who came into contact with the 35 positive cases.
Health officials, assisted by police, were diligent in contract tracing when Covid cases were trickling into the state in March and April. But as cases starts surging, contact tracing has become a challenge, especially for districts that report higher number of cases.
Health officials say major part of the challenge could be overcome if people are responsible enough to voluntarily declare their travel and contact history. “They either hide the travel history or don’t share complete details of all their contacts,” said a district health officer.
The state has a relatively better record of contact tracing, compared to other states with high infection rate. According to a paper published in the Indian Journal of Medical Research (IJMR), of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the number of contacts tested per positive case was 14 in Tamil Nadu, which was higher than the national average of six.
According to the paper, in Maharashtra it was 2.3 and in Delhi it was 2.1 contacts per positive case.
J Radhakrishnan, special nodal officer for Greater Chennai Corporation, says they have been consistently tracing contacts of all positive cases, despite rising numbers. “There is no better way other than to trace, isolate, test and treat people, for now.”
However, epidemiologists are sceptical about the efficiency of contact tracing when positive cases are skyrocketing. Dr Jayaprakash Muliyil, renowned epidemiologist, says contact tracing helps when there are a few cases to get rid of the virus. “In Chennai, it’s too late for contact tracing. It doesn’t mean anything now, when there are practically Covid cases everywhere. What we should do is believe every other person has the virus and keep distance from each other.”
(With inputs from Sukshma and Sampath)