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Journalism of Courage
To find Covid-19 cases from among the 55 lakh population of the city, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has adopted different means to trace patients but first contact tracing and home survey has been the most effective way.
As on May 15, the PMC has traced 3,093 Covid-19 patients and isolated them for treatment at dedicated Covid hospitals, Covid centres and quarantine centres across the city.
Of the total number of traced patients, 73.6 per cent have been tracked mostly through first contacts and then by door-to-door survey by 944 civic teams, divided into 105 clusters.
Through first contact tracing, the PMC has referred 13,729 suspected patients, of which 1,879 tested positive making up 60.7 per cent of the total.
The door-to-door home survey helped the PMC find 400 patients out of 3,441 referred for testing, which is 12.9 per cent of the total number of positive cases.
The mobile dispensary initiative started with the help of different social organisations led to 9.2 per cent of total positive cases, which is 284 patients out the 6,063 referred.
Of the 4,533 foreign travellers referred, only 19 tested positive making up 0.61 per cent of the total number of positive cases. Flu clinics started by the PMC helped trace six positive cases out of the 2,623 referred.
There were other ways, including private hospitals and Sassoon hospital, which led to 505 patients making up 16.3 per cent of the total number of positive cases.
“The PMC has surveyed 100 per cent houses and 50 per cent were surveyed again for precautionary measures. An average of 50,000 houses and 1.5 lakh people are being surveyed every day for the past two months,” said Municipal Commissioner Shekhar Gaikwad.
He said the central team thrice reviewed the situation in the city and they focused on the line of treatment and contact tracing by the civic body.
“We have done a lot through contact tracing and home survey to trace Covid patients. This has helped the PMC to find patients instead of waiting for them to approach civic hospitals,” said Additional Municipal Commissioner Rubal Agarwal.
Assistant Medical Officer Vaishali Jadhav, who is in-charge of the survey team, said the contact tracing played a crucial role in checking the spread of the infection.
“The experience of the survey during the H1N1 infection a decade ago helped manage the existing serious situation. The teams are working hard but there is still a long way to go. The survey team is tired as it’s time consuming but the task is to keep up the tempo of the survey team,” she said, adding the efforts should be to reduce problems of the team to keep them going.
