In 11 days, 152 ‘superspreaders’ quarantined in NMC, police RAT drive

Nagpur: The Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) drive against those violating Covid curbs launched by Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) and city police has ensured 152 ‘superspreaders’ were nabbed in 11 days, and isolated at institutional quarantine centres. All these persons were out during the curbs put in place to break the corona chain, and did not have any idea they were Covid positive until subjected to the RAT, and hence spreading the infection to others unknowingly.
Kickstarted on April 17, the drive was initiated to instil fear in the minds of aimless loiterers and casual violators, who venture out from home without valid reasons. The measure was devised after violators were unfazed by actions like fines for not wearing masks, violation of social distancing and vehicle detention.
Maximum tests were conducted on April 18, when 434 persons were put through the RAT and 18 were sent to the quarantine centres after testing positive. In total, 3,245 tests have been conducted and 152 were sent to quarantine centres. Though it could not be found out how many stayed at the quarantine centres for how long, and if any contact tracing could be done.
City police chief Amitesh Kumar and NMC chief Radhakrishnan B had started the drive. Kumar said the drive would be strengthened in the coming days with the main purpose of isolating and quarantining superspreaders while also penalising people taking the curbs lightly. “Asymptomatic superspreaders are the most lethal for the city’s population as they roam around without any restrictions and spread the disease, which we are aiming to stop. We need to pull up people for being careless about curbs,” he said.
The CP also said the drive would be intensified. “After starting at five places, we had conducted the drive at six places on Wednesday and would contemplate changing the locations and increase the manpower as per the ongoing assessment,” he said.
On Wednesday, city police had conducted 234 tests till 1pm and detected 13 superspreaders apart from fining 53 for not wearing masks and another 305 for violating social distancing norms. Police also detained 189 vehicles.