Trace 30 contacts of every Covid-19 patient: Centre to BBMP

The health ministry has asked the Bengaluru civic authorities to trace 30 contacts of every Covid positive patient, BBMP Commissioner N Manjunatha Prasad has said.

Bengaluru is one of the top ten districts in India in terms of active cases.

At present, Karnataka has mandated all districts to trace at least 20 contacts of every positive patient in tune with the recommendations of the State Covid-19 Technical Advisory Committee.

On Saturday, Prasad attended a meeting called by the Centre to discuss the situation in 46 districts with a high burden of Covid cases.

Also read: Karnataka logs over 3,000 Covid-19 cases for first time in four months

Besides identifying 30 contacts of every positive patient, the health secretary asked the BBMP to ramp up the testing and vaccination efforts and partner with private players for bed management, Prasad said.

At the meeting, Prasad pointed out that Bengaluru's positivity rate was much better (lower) than 44 districts of concern identified by the union government. The BBMP is in the 45th position with a 1.84% positivity rate, he pointed out.

The BBMP is already testing 60,000-odd people per day, a three-fold increase since early March. "We are currently tracing 10 contacts per patient. In hostels and independent homes, it's not possible to find so many contacts. We can find many contacts only in case of people who frequently go out," Prasad said. "Contact-tracing remains our weak area." Tracing even 20 contacts per Covid patient will be good enough, he added.

Also read: Over 470 children below 10 years infected with Covid-19 in Bengaluru since March 1

The Centre asked the BBMP to vaccinate more people in areas with a spike in Covid cases.

"Our target is to vaccinate 85,000 people but we are reaching only 35,000. Not more than that," Prasad said. According to him, other states were vaccinating people even outside of healthcare facilities. "How can we expect the residents of old age homes to come and get vaccinated? Our PHC doctor can instead go with an ambulance to these places and vaccinate the people," he explained.

In Bengaluru, there are 25 lakh people aged 45 or above, and the BBMP hopes to ramp up the vaccination from April 1 onwards.

Bed management

Stating that there will be a spike in Covid cases in the next two months, the BBMP chief stressed the need to make preparations. "We'll restart our partnership with private hospitals for bed sharing and have reopened Covid care centres," he said.