Coronavirus: In Karnataka's Nanjangud, contact tracing in time saves lives

The first Covid-19 case was detected in Mysuru on March 21. The third case was reported from Mysuru city on March 26, and the patient was an employee of Jubilant Generics. By April 29, Mysuru district's tally had risen to 90, with 74 patients connected to Jubilant Generics.

While the transmission in the first Jubilant Generics case is a mystery, the Nanjangud cluster, or the ‘pharma cluster’ as it informally came to be known, could have snowballed into something much worse. “We screened nearly 750 employees of the total 1,483 employees of the company on March 27 itself,” said the Tahsildar K M Mahesh Kumar.

Read: Poor implementation, monitoring weaken Covid-19 strategies

The Health Department officials and healthcare professionals traced the remaining employees, with the help of Police and Revenue Department officials. The samples were taken and a database was created. “They were advised home quarantine, stickers were put up on their homes, their areas were secured and people’s movement was restricted,” added Kumar.

A cluster containment zone was created, comprising 60,000 people in Nanjangud town and neighbouring villages.

“We created a single entry point and a single exit point and diverted the national highway to Tamil Nadu via T Narsipur. The cooperation of both officials and people helped in containing further spread of the pandemic,” the tahsildar said.

Also Read: Massive testing, isolation helped contain Chennai's Covid-19 outbreak

The well-planned measures worked. While the taluk reported 49 cases until April 29, May saw just one case reported, with cases increasing again from June 10.

As of July 24, 136 persons reported positive in Nanjangud taluk, with 59 of them related to Jubilant Generics. The tally of Mysuru district stood at 2,450.

Nanjangud accounts for three of the 99 Covid-19 deaths reported from the district so far.