City traced 97% of its total Covid contacts by August 15

Gurgaon: The Gurgaon administration completed tracing 97% of the total number of contacts of Covid patients on August 15. In comparison, the health department had managed to trace just 57% of the contacts on August 1.
According to data released by the Haryana government, the rate of contact tracing in Gurgaon had jumped from 57% on August 1 to 71% on August 8. By August 15, the health department had traced 97% of the contacts. These numbers were not static, but were calculated according to the number of active cases at that time.
As of August 15, the district administration had traced 9,879 of 10,185 Covid contacts. The five public healthcare centres that helped the district scale up surveillance in the last 15 days are in Tigra, Sohna, Gurgaon village, Pataudi and Fazilpur.
Testing and tracing of contacts are being considered key to arresting the spread of infection across states. If contacts are traced within days of a person testing positive and their samples are tested immediately, it helps the administration in administering timely treatment and preventing patients from getting critical.
In the last 15 days, Gurgaon has added 1,019 cases to its Covid count. Of them, Wazirabad reported 22% of the cases, Laxman Vihar 20%, Tigra 19%, Chandralok 15%, Sohna 13% and Bhangrola 11%. As contacts were traced in these areas and testing ramped up, it helped Gurgaon bring down the positivity rate to below 7% for the first time in three months.
A cause for concern was that most of the recent cases were being reported from areas that are densely populated. “We set up 10 camps in each of these areas and conducted around 1,000 tests daily. This helped bring down the positivity rate to 6.9% in Gurgaon. We are conducting tests according to the ICMR protocol. We are on the right track,” said said Dr Virender Yadav, the chief medical officer.
Gurgaon has 35 urban and rural primary health centres. Of them, 14 managed to trace 100% of Covid contacts in the areas. These centres include Surat Nagar, Manesar, Gandhi Nagar, Patel Nagar, Bhondsi, Daultabad, Firoj Gandhi Colony, Farrukh Nagar, Sohna, Tigra and Pataudi.
“We have observed that multiple cases have been reported from particular localities. So, we have been carrying out surveys and sampling in these areas. We have made changes to the number of containment zones as and when required. Every zone is now being reviewed after 14 days. It was 28 days earlier,” said Amit Khatri, the Gurgaon deputy commissioner.