Emphasize contact tracing to contain COVID-19, Odisha tells collectors

Bhubaneswar: All district collectors of Odisha have been asked to emphasize on ‘contact tracing’ to contain the spreading of coronavirus in the state.

Health Department Secretary Nikunja Dhal wrote to the collectors requesting them to focus on surveillance and contact tracing. They have been asked to personally review three important focus areas from the perspective of disease prevention and control– (i) Active surveillance of people who have returned from COVID-19 affected areas (abroad and other states) and quarantine of all such people irrespective of symptoms, (ii) Risk-based testing, isolation of confirmed cases and contact tracing, and (iii) Quarantine of contacts of confirmed cases irrespective of symptoms.

“Active surveillance is the foundation of prevention and containment. The updated data that has been received indicates that 2856 persons who have returned from abroad during the last 14 days could not be contacted by District Surveillance teams so far. These persons could infect others unless home quarantined. They need to be contacted at the earliest to ensure their home quarantine. This task has to be carried out by Collectors and Municipal Commissioners,” Dhal said in the letter.