Infected SCB employee puts 181 Cuttack locals at risk

JAGATSINGHPUR: An employee of the SCB Medical College and Hospital at Cuttack who has tested positive during the so-called home quarantine at Radhanaga village under Raghunathpur block has exposed the huge chinks in the monitoring system as a large number of villagers are now under scanner.

Nearly 200 people are said to have come in contact with the man, who was supposed to be in ‘home quarantine’, and set to be tested for the infection. The village has been declared a containment zone. The panchayat has sealed his house and restricted his family members from stepping out.

The man, a contractual worker at SCB MCH, had returned to the village on June 29 after the hospital sent back its employees amidst a spurt in Covid cases. His swab sample had been sent for testing.

On July 3, he tested positive for coronavirus and was immediately shifted to a Covid Hospital. The news came as a shocker for other villagers who feared that the man could be a super spreader of the virus as he had come in contact with a large number of people. Flouting the isolation rules, he is alleged to have moved freely and mingled with the villagers.

Gualipur sarpanch Janaki Ballav Swain informed that a health team led by Raghunathpur CHC medical officer Pravash Kumar Acharya is carrying out the contact tracing. “The team has identified nearly 181 villagers including seven family members who came in contact with the man after his return. The village has been declared a containment zone and swabs of contacts will be collected soon,” he added.
Similarly, villagers of Tala Sahar under Mulisingh panchayat of Tirtol block were gripped with fear of local transmission of the virus as five migrant returnees tested positive after being discharged from the quarantine centre. All five belonged to one family.

They were discharged on Sunday after completing the mandatory 14-day stay. But their swabs tested positive for the virus on Monday. A health team rushed to the village and took them to KIMS Covid Hospital.

However, as they had come in contact with other family members and villagers, authorities immediately declared the village a containment zone.

Sarpanch Annapurna Biswal said their house has been sealed and swabs of eight other family members have been collected apart from a contact tracing exercise.