Dist team to take pragmaticapproach to isolate contacts

Thiruvananthapuram: With positive cases repeatedly being reported through local transmission in hospitals, shopping complexes, textiles and super markets, the district health wing and administration are going for pragmatic, liberal measures in terms of containment and isolation of contacts.
Simultaneous confirmation of positive cases in places where people gather in large numbers often result in a lengthy trail of contacts posing two major challenges in terms of contact tracing and fixing area of containment.
Following the recent instance in which five staff of a retail chain tested positive at Sreekaryam, the health wing had to consider various options. The contact list in addition to high risk contacts was apparently very long with customers, dealers and suppliers who visited the place over the past 10 days.
While mandatory 14-day quarantine period was suggested for people who were confirmed to have come in direct, close contact with staff who were tested positive, a similar decision couldn’t be taken for others.
There were contacts numbering more than 1,000 and putting all of them under quarantine for 14 days seemed impractical. Hence, health wing has decided not to go for such measures. Although there was another suggestion from health team to declare containment zones within 1 km of the shopping centre in all directions, there were questions regarding lack of clarity in determining exact contacts who should be isolated and areas from where they came from. The area where shopping centre is located is adjacent to three wards and pinpointing contacts and area of residence seemed another hectic task.
District medical officer K S Shinu said it is no longer possible to put all contacts under quarantine or to lock down an entire area. “We are now taking a balanced approach. It’s time people took precautions and acted with responsibility. Just because a few persons test positive in a place which records a large gathering, all of them cannot be regarded as contacts and can’t be put under quarantine. High-risk contacts will be monitored closely for symptoms and to prevent spread of infection. The same thing applies for fixing containment zones as well,” the DMO said, adding that the practice of shutting down entire establishments following two or three persons testing positive won’t be viable anymore.
Earlier, the district administration had to give an explanation after it published a list of shops saying those who had visited the shops should report after positive cases had been confirmed. It turned out that many shops in the list had not been functional during the time period specified by the district administration. Officials with contact tracing team are likely to be asked to narrow down the line of contacts; especially focusing on close contacts considering the need for public to learn to live with Covid.