This story is from June 29, 2020

Active contact tracing helped Amreli contain nCov spread

Active contact tracing helped Amreli contain nCov spread
cap
Rajkot: Amreli district administration had remained on the edge, fearing a sudden spike in Covid-19 cases, due to massive influx of people from Covid hotspot Surat to their native villages.
It was only on May 13 that the first case was reported from the district, but the spread has been significantly contained, thanks to active contact tracing of positive patients.
Despite meagre resources, Amreli has one of the highest per patient contact tracing in Gujarat with the administration successfully finding 145 persons per patient.

Amreli collector Aayush Oak told TOI, “We are taking all such preventive measures to identify possible Covid patients in the early stages. This will help us reduce the mortality rate. We did our best to control community spreading, as we are the highest in contact tracing of positive persons among all the districts.”
Oak said that the administration is trying its level best to save a patient even in situations where the condition deteriorates. “We have given patients anti-viral injection that costs about Rs 36,000 and are rarely available. We have given this injection to four critical patients, of whom we could save two lives.”
Besides Amreli, Jamnagar and Porbandar too managed its pandemic threat in a more systematic way. After June 1 when borders opened, Covid cases soared in these districts with an influx of positive carriers from the two major business hubs - Ahmedabad and Surat.

On May 30, there were only nine active cases in Jamnagar’s GG Hospital while on June 25 there were 78 active cases under treatment. There are on average 15 to 20 people per day tested positive in the district. Jamnagar collector Ravi Shankar said “We have parked dedicated ambulances outside Ayurved University and ESIC Hospital so that a patient needing oxygen support can be brought immediately. Even a recovered patient who is discharged is not given home quarantine but provided government quarantine facility. We also don’t ask positive patients to take treatment at home.”
Bhavnagar also reported over 200 cases which are all treated in Sir T Hospital, of whom 140 have recovered.
author
About the Author
Nimesh Khakhariya

Nimesh Khakhariya is an assistant editor with Times Of India.

End of Article
FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA