CHANDIGARH: A surge in Covid-19 has forced the municipal corporation to double the count of its contact-tracing teams from nine to 18 and propose to take some outsourced MPWs (multi-purpose workers) on board.
A source in the MC said: “Since the prime focus is Covid and the situation is going from bad to worse, we have to deploy more teams for contact tracing. They must trace 20 to 25 contacts of each patient, so that maximum people can be taken for testing to contain the outbreak as soon as possible.”
When the cases had declined, the contact-tracing teams were reduced from nine to three, but a month ago, when the flattening curve turned upwards again, the count went again to nine. An MC official said: “But now as the cases have reached a new
high, those nine teams have become 18. We will keep any eye on the situation and take further decisions accordingly.”
Unlike last year when Covid-19 had just started in the city, all the MC departments were fully operational for their original work and targets when the workload increased all of a sudden. Most of the departments have spared staff for the contact-tracing duty but the firemen are in a vast majority on these squads.
Unlike the last year, no one is putting up quarantine posters outside the houses or stamping the arms of those isolated. A thing also stopped is mobile surveillance of the patients, while the tracing target is stiffer. Quarantinerelated work is extra burden.
On Sunday, the city reported more deaths due to Covid-19. A 45-year-old woman from Mauli Jagran died at the PGI with diabetes, hypertension, and acute respiratory distress syndrome. A 70-year-old man from Sector 22, a case of severe lung disease, died at a private hospital in Mohali. A 60-year-old man from Sector 30 died with diabetes and hypertension at GMSH-16.