As a second COVID-19 cluster was detected in Telangana, dreadful memories from last year started playing on the minds of State Health officials. Emerging clusters, rapid spread of coronavirus and its containment had given sleepless nights to the officials even as they clocked in extra hours to keep the situation under control.
A big disadvantage over last year, however, is the difficulty in finding the source of the infection. Health officials said unrestricted movement of people, possibility of an asymptomatic COVID patient spreading the infection and lack of COVID-appropriate behaviour among people are making it difficult for them to track the source.
At the Zilla Parishad High School, Mancherial, 13 teachers, 30 students, a cook, and six parents have been detected with COVID-19. The cluster size is 50. Besides, 34 students at Telangana Minority Residential School in Nagole were detected with the virus on Tuesday.
Officials said with unrestricted movement of people, it becomes difficult to trace how a person contracted the infectious disease.
“During the lockdown and after that, people who tested positive were able to list out all the places they had been to and who they met. They used to visit limited places owing to fear of contracting COVID. Their movement was restricted. But people are not restricting their movement now, which makes it difficult to recall all the places they visited and people they came in contact with. Besides, a person who was asymptomatic could have spread the virus,” said an official of the Health department.
They said a large number of people are not observing precautions such as wearing mask and maintaining physical distancing which makes it easy for the virus to spread.
Clear signs
Only two clusters might have been detected till Tuesday night, but District Medical and Health officials are trying to find out if there are any more such clusters. Mancherial district officials said one more teacher in a government school in Chenur has been detected with the virus. However, when tests were conducted among the teacher’s contacts, they were COVID-negative.
The clusters are clear signs that coronavirus is spreading again and people have to continue taking COVID-19 precautions including wearing masks, maintain physical distancing and avoid public gatherings to steer clear of the infection.
