Covid-19 sentinel surveillance: Man tested positive in Idukki

KOTTAYAM: A person contracted with coronavirus was identified in the sentinel surveillance conducted by the health department in Idukki district on Thursday.
The virus was detected in a 39-year-old bakery owner residing in Karunapuram panchayath in Nedunkandam block in the district. The bakery is in Puttadi in Vandanmedu panchayath.
Sentinel surveillance is conducted to detect community transmission of Covid-19.The state had decided to strengthen the sentinel surveillance system which will help in providing early warning signals and epidemiological information about the next phase of the pandemic in the state.
There has been a state-wide direction regarding this in the wake of the inflow of the expatriates.
In sentinel surveillance, the state population is divided into seven groups based on potential risk exposure. The person who had contracted the virus belongs to the group 3 which include persons with high social exposure.
This group include food delivery persons, community volunteers for covid control, Police, health and media personnel and shop vendors. To detect community spread in this group, 400 samples are tested for one week. Priority for selection of samples will be given to the local body with maximum active cases and maximum number of people under quarantine.