Karnataka govt orders to put primary and secondary contacts of Covid positive on home quarantine

Spread of Omicron cases in the country has taken pace with more than 230 cases already. Karnataka with 19 Omicron cases has directed the health officials, district surveillance officials, deputy commissioners to step up tracking, tracing of those infected and quarantine the primary and secondary contacts of such people. Karnataka has Covid tally of 300 cases in the last 24 hours and test positivity rate is between 0.25 to 0.3 percent.

T K Anil Kumar, the principal secretary of the health and family department in the state signed an order stating the tracking, tracing and isolating the primary and secondary contacts of the infected people more effectively. Moreover, the contacts need to be traced pro-actively within 24 hours of reporting positive. The primary contacts will be tested on day 1 and then after seven days and put on home quarantine until the second test is conducted.

International travelers from high-risk countries on the other hand need to be quarantined for seven days from the date of arrival until follow-up and repeat the RT-PCR test on 8thday. If the primary and secondary contacts test positive, they need to be treated according to Covid protocol as well.

Community Health officers, Public Health inspecting Officers and ASHA workers will be responsible for contract tracing, quarantining and supervising them under insolation.

BBMP (Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike) and the districts will field dedicated and full time persons separately for this purpose. The tracking, tracing and quarantine activity will be reported at Contact Tracing and Quarantine Watch applications who will be trained by BBMP and other health authorities.

All covid positive people will be triaged by a medical officer , a team on ground or primary health centre as per prevailing instructions. Moreover tele triaging will also be in place at state level and the information will be recorded in Index application and state line list, the orders said. Additional teams will be deployed by BBMP if need be.

Moreover, central war rooms, zonal and assembly constituency level war rooms , district war rooms will be activated and made functional to monitor the situation and make dynamic strategies.