CHENNAI: While contact tracing is touted to be a key aspect in containing the spread of Covid, Chennai corporation is facing a new challenge as more vegetable vendors in the city have tested positive for the infection. The officials are having a hard time in tracing the contacts of these vendors as they cater to hundreds of customers everyday, especially in markets such as Koyambedu.
The corporation has managed to trace, in just two days, around 40 customers of a hairdresser, who was running his business illegally at Koyambedu, after the man tested positive. But, it could draw only four samples of confirmed customers as on Tuesday morning, four days after a vegetable vendor at Koyambedu tested positive. On Monday, 13 persons, including the man’s family and neighbours, tested positive.
“We acted swiftly and drew samples from 37 of his contacts who are family members and neighbours. Of these, 13 tested positive. However, tracing his customers is proving to be very difficult as not all of them are regulars to his shop. We have asked him to call up the regular customers and tell them to come for testing. So far, four of his regular customers have been tested,” said a Corporation official.
Under similar circumstances, the Corporation officials have not yet got the complete information of the customers of a 53-year-old flower vendor at Koyambedu market after he tested positive on Tuesday, said an official. His family members and those who worked alongside him have been isolated and tested.
Though the corporation has not disclosed the number of vegetable vendors who tested positive, at least four vendors have tested positive from market spaces in the city corporation limits. Apart from the two Koyambedu market vendors, a 15-year-old boy and his employer who ran a vegetable shop at Vadapalani market tested positive for the virus last week.
Meanwhile, a 19-year-old boy, who claimed to have not ventured anywhere outside his house except to the market in Ayanavaram, tested positive on Sunday, said officials. Similarly, on April 22, a 54-year-old vegetable vendor in Alandur market had tested positive for the virus. He has been admitted to RGGH and is stable, they said. While they suspect that the man could have contracted the virus from a COVID-19 positive patient from Ramapuram as the latter had visited the Alandur market, the officials said they couldn’t trace any information about the vendor’s customers.
“There is no way we can find out who his customers are. However, we hope that anyone with symptoms will be identified in the door-to-door survey as part of fever surveillance that we undertake everyday,” an official said.
How contact tracing is done
When contacted, a senior corporation official explained that, in case a person tests positive for COVID-19 infection, all family members and extended contacts that the person can remember are contacted first. Then, the cell phone records of the individual would be combed through to see who he/she has contacted in the last 15 days. The Corporation’s control room then calls these contacts to narrow down on anyone who might have come in physical contact with the patient.However, when it comes to vegetable vendors, tracing has become a challenge as they don’t remember all their customers, the official said adding that the corporation has beefed up testing, especially at Koyambedu market.