Gujarat: No new cases in two weeks, but tribal districts guard against resurgence

Narmada and Chhota Udepur have not recorded a new case in 14 days and Bharuch has not reported a positive case in 10 days. District collectors of the three districts said while it was too early to classify the districts in the green zone — the mandatory period without new cases reported is 21 days — facilities have been created to quarantine any new person with symptoms of the virus.

In Chhota Udepur, district collector Sujal Mayatra has roped in local priest and sarpanches of villages in order to spread awareness among tribals who are known to have their own belief systems and do not always prefer to visit primary health centres.

“The village priests and the sarpanches are telling people that symptoms should be reported to the local PHC. The sarpanches are heading local village corona committees along with a few others who must keep track of any new persons arriving in the village from outside or even any person within the village showing symptoms of COVID-19. They are being told to maintain social distancing and hygiene habits,” Mayatra said. The district has also created six quarantine facilities in each block with a capacity of hundred each in order to quarantine the labourers who are expected to arrive home from other parts.

Mayatra said, “We are expecting an influx of labourers returning home within the next two days and so we are guarded and ready for sampling and any other measures that need to be taken to prevent escalation,” Mayatra said. The district saw the discharge of its 13th positive patient on Friday and has one under treatment now.

Collectors of Narmada and Bharuch, where all positive cases have been discharged, said that it was too early to say that the districts are COVID-19 free. The two districts, however, are not expecting arrival of any native villages from other cities.

“In Narmada, we do not expect villagers to arrive from other parts of the country. Whoever had to return home did so earlier. But we are alert and conducting testing regularly to ensure that any new cases are detected in time,” district collector Manoj Kothari said. Of the 12 cases reported in Narmada, at least seven were of those who returned home during lockdown.

The Bharuch district administration which had closed down the Bharuch civil hospital after seven staff members, including a doctor and three lab technicians, tested positive, has also seen all its 27 cases of COVID-19 recover. The civil hospital has restarted earlier this week and the district administration is following the containment and testing strategies to contain new cases.

District collector M D Modhiya said, “Honestly, not having a new case in the last 10 days is worrisome. We do not want to leave anything to chance and have any undetected cases cause a new spread. Two of our areas where positive cases were found continue to be in containment. We are also testing as many as 60-70 samples everyday in order to keep detection rate going. We have also created facilities to be able to quarantine about 3,000 people. The village areas and the tribal belt is under intense monitoring by the health teams and we have brought the sarpanch on board to identify any persons suffering from acute respiratory infection or severe respiratory infection or showing signs of any kind of flu.”

The samples from Bharuch are now being sent for testing to Surat, Modhiya said.

“The focus is also on high risk persons and areas that are clustered and therefore pose a risk of rapid community spread should even one case arise from here. Right now our aim is to ensure that we detect any possible case immediately. We have quarantined a total of 922 people so far,” Modhiya said.

Chhota Udepur district has conducted over 434 tests so far, while Bharuch has conducted 1,254 tests. Narmada has conducted over 1,000 tests since the beginning of April.