THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The police and health departments in Thiruvananthapuram have rolled out a new action plan to trace the contacts of Covid-19 patients, which is imperative to tackle the rise in local transmission cases. Following the state government’s decision to hand over the task of contact tracing to the police department, city police commissioner Balram Kumar Upadhyay and DMO K S Shinu met on Tuesday to discuss the fine details of the exercise.
As per new plan, the health department will hand over the list of patients to the police, who will then track their travel history and contacts. “This is not a ‘power shift’ scenario. It’s a practical decision which will act as a breather for the health department,” said the DMO.