Chandigarh: Prime Minister Narendera Modi and Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar’s formula to fight Covid-19 includes the “3 Ts” (tracing, testing and treatment), but nine out of 22 districts in the state have failed to meet the minimum criteria of contact tracing. All nine districts in Haryana which have an average of less than 10 contacts traced per case, have emerged as major hotspots.
Haryana has an average of little over 10 contacts traced per infected person, which is not enough. Health authorities, especially health and home minister Anil Vij, have set a target of tracing up to 12-15 contacts of infected persons to control the disease. Once considered to be the worst-hit district and having earned the wrath of many on the account of detection of infected persons who attended the Tablighi Jamat event last year, Mewat has the highest rate of contact tracing with lesser Covid positive cases.
Jind district is the worst performer in contact tracing with lowest ration. Ironically, districts which have emerged as worst hotspots are among the worst performers.
According to records prepared by Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP), Haryana, Nuh has contact tracing ratio of over 20 persons per infected person. After Nuh, Palwal has the second highest number of contacts traced per infected person, 16. The figure is 13 in Kaithal. Jind has the lowest ratio of little over five persons per patient, followed by 6.6 in Fatehabad, 7.45 in Faridabad, 7.79 in Panipat, 8.25 in Rewari, 8.75 in Mahendergarh, 8.81 in Charkhi Dadri, 9.25 in Yamunanagar, 9.36 in Rohtak, and 9.7 in Karnal district.
Districts with borderline of over 10 but less than 11 contacts traced include Jhajjar, Sirsa, Ambala and Kurukshetra, while the districts which have the average of above 11 but below 12 contacts per infected patient include Sonipat, Panchkula, Gurugram, Hisar and Bhiwani.
Panipat civil surgeon Sanjeev Grover expressed ignorance on the contact tracing ratio as he had joined two days ago. Jind CMO accepted low contact tracing. Dr Manjit Singh, the CMO, cited staff shortage. “Now we have got 200 Saksham workers who have been put on job. You shall see results by next week,’’ he said.
Karnal civil surgeon Dr Yogesh Sharma expressed satisfaction and reasoned that most of the contacts of infected persons had got infections. “You take the case of Kunjpura; all students were contacts of each other. Otherwise, we are already working hard to improve contact tracing,’’ he said. Faridabad civil surgeon could not be reached. When contacted, Faridbad NIT MLA Neeraj Sharma assured to take up the issue with health authorities. “Concealing any information amounts to crime against humanity. All infected persons must provide health department the details of persons whom they had come in contact with. They should also motivate contacts to approach health authorities. Rest, we will also take up this issue with health department,’’ said Sharma.
“All our health workers, medicos, para medicos and frontline workers are making all-out efforts to ensure adequate contact tracing as well as other issues related to surveillance. Patients and those who came in contact with them too must share this responsibility of coming forward. Else, our efforts are improving things,” said Usha Gupta, director, Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP), Haryana.