Situation alarming as Covid cases with unknown sources of infection surge

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The number of Covid cases with no known sources of infection is on the rise in the district. Similarly, a rise in cases surrounding establishments is also going up.  The health department in turn is adapting to the changing patterns to identify more positive cases. On Thursday alone, 142 cases with no known sources of infection were reported indicating the spread of the virus across the district.On Wednesday, cases with no known sources of infection were 184 while on Tuesday 130 such cases were reported. On Monday, 103 cases with no known sources were reported. 

In the case of establishments, 110 people had recently tested positive in an establishment, over 50 at a care home, close to 40 at another care home and even at the Secretariat.“People are travelling to many places and the tracking is comparatively difficult with many testing positive. Identifying a source when a person has many contacts is not practical. Instead we identify their contacts and quarantine them. Even though the human resource is being stretched, local level contact tracing is still being done. We also have many tests being done in private labs. So even if we don’t do tests in a specific area, people are getting tested and such cases come to light,” said Dr K S Shinu, DMO, Thiruvananthapuram.

On an average 5,000 tests are done in the district every day of which half is in the private sector and the other half is in government.While there is focus on infections from no known sources, equal emphasis is given on monitoring the establishments. The DMO said that the focus is now on such centres which have more workers.

“We have been doing tests in establishments where people are working in close quarters and have found many cases during these tests. All orphanages and care centres are also seeing massive tests and we are detecting spreads. Our strategy will be amended to suit the turn of tides as we go along,” said Dr Shinu.
With possible increase in cases in sight, two CFTCs with higher bed capacity and hospital for category B patients are being set up in the district now. However, even as the Covid spread escalates, the district is looking at a major shortage in human resources. Close to 140 PG doctors will leave the compulsory service after the completion of their service duration.