Aurangabad, Oct 24:
The drive to conduct tests upon persons coming in contact with
Covid-19 positive patients seem to have shelved for the past seven months or implemented in a low profile manner. Presently, health personnel do not search for contact persons beyond the family members. If anybody voluntarily comes forward, then only the test is conducted upon him or else not?
Earlier, the contact persons were admitted to the quarantine centre till their test reports are not received. Later on, the antigens tests are conducted, and the results are ought on the spot. As a result, the centre sans admission of suspects. There was not a single suspect admitted in all quarantine centres on Friday.
As per norms, it is essential to check at least 17 persons coming in contact with one positive patient. Nowadays, family members are tested on priority. If others do not come forward, then the testing is not done upon them. Many of them avoid approaching voluntarily. However, the health administration claimed to check contact persons as per the norms.
Under the state government''s My Family My Responsibility campaign, the health teams are visiting door to door and are identifying suspects having Covid-like symptoms. At many places, despite having symptoms, the patients refuse to give his swab for testing in fear of getting quarantined. Hence, the health teams had to return in embarrassment.
The district health officer Dr Sudhakar Shelke said, " We are checking the persons coming in contact with positive patients. People themselves are coming forward for testing when they learn that their contact person has been detected as Covid-19 positive. Under the government''s drive, we are collecting swab samples of persons having Covid-like symptoms. However, there is opposition to it in some areas."