Since the first Delhi person tested positive for coronavirus (Covid-19) on Monday, Delhi government’s infectious disease control cell has been working overtime to look for the people he came in contact with before being sent to the isolation facility at Safdarjung hospital on Sunday.
The task force set up by the government has traced 92 contacts of this man so far, of which 14 people live in Delhi.
For the other 74, the government has contacted the respective states to follow up. Six others from the family, who were living in Agra, also tested positive and are also in the isolation facility at Safdarjung hospital.
Apart from that, the state and the district level task force have also been involved in tracing the contacts of the group of Italian tourists who travelled to Rajasthan.
“Since the people tested positive, we have sanitised all the hotels that they were in and also informed the hotels of infection control measures. We have also sensitised our own staff members,” said a government official on condition of anonymity.
Till the morning of March 4, over 1.2 lakh passengers from 12 countries had been screened at the Delhi airport.
Since the screenings began, 152 persons were found to be symptomatic and were admitted to either of two nodal hospitals in Delhi – Dr Ram Manohar Lohia and Safdarjung hospital. So far, 118 of them have tested negative and one positive.
In Delhi, 33 people were under hospital isolation till March 4, pending test results. Of them, 10 had been admitted to the hospitals on Wednesday.
Apart from the two designated hospitals, which together have the isolation capacity for 130 persons, the state government has also asked 25 other hospitals to strengthen their isolation facility and arrange for necessary logistics.
