Registers that are being maintained by shops, hotels, supermarkets and salons in the city could prove useful while tracing contacts of people who test positive, making public participation an integral part of the COVID-19 fight.
“Before the entire West Kochi area was declared a containment zone and tracing contacts of those patients who had visited shops, it was useful to have these registers with names and contact numbers,” said Sajini, a junior public health nurse.
“In situations where people are hesitant about revealing where they went or who they were in contact with, the police usually get involved to trace calls or inspect such registers for information,” said Sreerekha, another junior public health nurse who has been involved with the contact-tracing process in West Kochi. “If such registers are not available, an intimation is put out through the local councillors asking people who visited the establishment at around the same time as the person who tested positive to go into quarantine. Staff at some establishments have tested positive recently, like some staff members working at a medical store in Thoppumpady,” she said.
Several establishments, ranging from larger supermarkets to small shops and salons, have been maintaining registers. Veni, who runs an electrical equipment and hardware store in Thykoodam, said that she collects contact details and names of people who visit, though she had received no specific directions to do so and no inspections were conducted. A rope tied a little distance away from the cash counter ensures that customers maintain distance from the counter. Sujith, who runs a salon in the area, said that the 10 to 15 customers he gets everyday are people he knows, and would be easy to trace.
The manager of a supermarket in Kaloor also said that a register is regularly maintained with the name of the customer, contact number and time of visit. The police have inspected the supermarket a few times to ensure that COVID-related protocol is being followed and that such a register was being maintained, he said.
Regular inspections are conducted even in hotels to make sure that all COVID-19 protocol, including the collection of such details of customers, is followed, said a health inspector of the Kochi Corporation. “The data is not collected unless necessary for contact-tracing. But the register is maintained as a precautionary measure,” he said.