Case burden high; next stage of intervention to begin

Aggressive containment and testing to be carried out in the identified zones

The writing on the road: A woman rides past a painting on the road that has a message about maintaining social distance and staying safe, in Vellore on Thursday.

As the number of positive cases continues to climb in Tamil Nadu, with a moderate dip for a day on Apil 7, it is clear the “big task” is still ahead of the health teams and continues to be imposing.

The bulk of the cases reported every day is derived from what the State government calls a “single source”. This is the group of people who attended the conference at Nizamuddin in Delhi. If the numbers continue to be high, has the State government not completed testing the participants? In effect, who are actually being tested now, contributing to the high figures?

According to sources in the Health Department, the bulk — the actual travellers — have been tested, and the contacts among those who tested positive have also been tested. There are about 1.500 contacts of these patients who tested positive.

This will now be taken to the next level with aggressive containment/testing methods in the zones already identified.

These include areas that the participants, both groups — those who tested positive, and those who tested negative — resided in. Families, neighbours and close associates will be included in this exercise. Sources said the task had begun to identify these groups and bring in people for testing and enforce strict containment rules.

The idea, according to officials, is to ensure that every such case is identified, traced, tested and contacts examined within the lockdown period.

Sources hinted that the State government was looking at the public health angles and various models to be followed with regard to post lockdown protocols. Global health experts would be consulted, they added.