Haryana: 4 districts register 100% contact tracing, Gurugram lags

GURUGRAM: Contact tracing in Haryana has improved in the past few days with several districts tracing 100% contacts in July, according to state government data.
While Bhiwani, Charkhi Dadri, Faridabad and Kaithal districts have registered 100% contact tracing, Gurugram which had traced only 57% contacts last week, has now reached 78%.
Even the state as a whole has improved its contact tracing from 72% on July 21 to 86% on Friday.
Dr Dhruv Chaudhary, nodal officer for Covid-19 in Haryana and the head of the department of pulmonary and critical care at PGIMS-Rohtak, said that they are ensuring that the districts conduct stringent contact tracing. "We are taking every possible step to ensure that people who came in contact with Covid patients are isolated and are tested to curb the spread of the virus," the Dr said.
However, Palwal, Panchkula and Panipat districts are still lagging behind. At present, Panchkula has conducted only 43% contact tracing while Palwal and Panipat are at 61% and 76% respectively. On July 21, Panchkula was at 54%, Panipat and Palwal were at 67%.
According to the state government the desirable percentage of contact tracing is 80% and some districts have not even reached half of the target.
Charkhi Dadri district, however, showed a remarkable improvement by reaching 100% from the previous 87%.
Even as Gurugram has improved in contact tracing, the district still has a long way to go. At present, the district has 2,523 cases of contact tracing pending, according to government data.
Elaborating on the hurdles of contact tracing, Gurugram chief medical officer (CMO) Dr Virender Yadav said that in many cases patients fail to provide accurate details. "This not only affects contact tracing but also delays several other processes. Sometimes, patients even go untraceable. Police complaints were registered against 2,000 Covid patients who went untraceable," he said, adding that things are, however, improving now.
"To streamline the process, we have registered FIRs against people and private labs for not following guidelines. Our teams are also visiting and calling patients for contact tracing," the CMO said, adding that Gurugram, at present, has 961 active cases of which 777 are under home isolation.