Losing track: ‘Missing’ Covid-19 patients keep health department and police on their toes

Gurgaon: Tracking Covid-19 patients and tracing their contacts continue to be one of the biggest challenges for the authorities in dealing with the pandemic. Many cases of people giving wrong contact details at the time of undergoing tests and fleeing isolation centres have come to light in the city.
In the last two-and-a-half months, the health department has approached Gurgaon police for tracking 573 persons who went off the radar after testing positive. Out of these, 367 have been traced, while the remaining 206 are yet to be tracked.
As many as four FIRs have been filed against five Covid-positive patients for leaving isolation centres without informing the authorities. Of these, three were nabbed in Gurgaon, one was tracked to UP and another to Hisar. They were sent to local isolation centres.
Police said the crime branch and cyber police are tracking such patients, many of whom submit false addresses and mobile numbers while getting tested. Others switch off their phones. In some cases, people who tested positive in Gurgaon and went missing were later found at their hometowns in UP and Bihar.
Initially, when the number of cases in the city was low, Covid-positive patients and their close contacts were kept at government isolation and quarantine centres. Some escaped and were later tracked and brought back to the centres. In May, when Khandsa mandi emerged as a major hotspot for Covid cases, many persons “disappeared” after being informed of testing positive on the phone. Some of them were nabbed in Gurgaon, while few others were tracked to their native places.
“We have been receiving lists of such people from the health department and crime units have been regularly tracking them. Some of them were tracked to their home states and were put in isolation centres there,” ACP (crime) Preet Pal Sangwan said.
He said police are tracking such persons with the help of surveillance and networks of informers. “They are not criminals and shouldn’t be treated as such; they escape out of fear and due to lack of awareness,” he added.
There have also been several instances of healthcare workers and police being attacked while carrying out door-to-door screening and tracing contacts of Covid-positive persons. A total of five FIRs have been registered and 11 people arrested so far.
On April 19, health workers were allegedly attacked by locals when they had gone to check a Covid19 positive person in Bhondsi. On the same day, police personnel on Covid-19 duty were also thrashed by villagers in Manesar.
Police said a police team was attacked again in Manesar on April 24, following which three persons were arrested. Similar cases were also reported in the city — a team was thrashed in Sector 18 on May 10, while on May 20, a mob attacked police in Palam Vihar to stop factory workers from entering Gurgaon.
“People living in villages fear that they will have to face social stigma if it becomes known that they have coronavirus. They resist contact tracing and don’t want health workers to approach them. We have to take help of police when we go to such areas,” said a medical officer from the health department said.