Geo-tagging in focus to track COVID positives

Corporation’s mapping of cases to study pattern of spread

In an effort to monitor and arrest the spread of COVID-19 in the city, the Corporation is now going to bank on geo-tagging to track those who have tested positive.

The micro-level location-wise mapping of cases will aid the civic body to study the pattern of disease spread and give more attention to the critical areas. The Corporation’s team of volunteers will be used for meeting the needs of those who have tested positive.

Hard to track

According to Corporation officials, with the increase in numbers, the Corporation has been finding it hard to keep track of all the patients who had turned positive.

The geo-tagging method was used after the first outbreak of COVID-19 last year to track those who are in quarantine, and to ensure that they do not venture out during their quarantine period.

Data obtained

“The data we are now getting daily of more than 2,000 positive cases has the name and basic details. But, it is a humongous task to divide them based on wards. Now, as part of geo-tagging, our team of coordinators will call up the positive patients and get their exact address. The Corporation’s volunteer team will visit the house and feed the location details into the geo-tagging application. The volunteers will also be at hand to provide any help, including purchase of medicines or food or to arrange medical help at home or an ambulance for them to travel to a hospital or to a testing centre, in case it is needed,” said an official.

Lesser challenge

The challenge was comparatively lesser last time as the number of people on quarantine was much lesser than the number of positive patients now. But with this kind of mapping, the areas of spread could be more accurately mapped and controls clamped down.

The Corporation already has a system in place for contact tracing with five government teachers in each of the 100 wards calling up each positive patient and tracing their contacts over the days before they become positive. This data comes in handy for more focussed testing and for isolation of probable positive cases.