KOCHI: Covid cases continue to spiral in Mattanchery and Fort Kochi despite stringent restrictions. In the past week, 130 new cases were reported from the two places.Though the areas have been declared Covid clusters under the West Kochi region, their demographic peculiarities have led to the failure of every strategy devised by the district’s health department so far.Officials of the health department said they were gradually increasing the number of tests in the area to evaluate the volume of Covid spread.
“There is no logic in conducting a massive testing drive as it will only dry up our resources. We are focusing on conducting antigen tests of asymptomatic contacts as much as possible. Even asymptomatic secondary contacts have contributed immensely to the spread,” said a health official who did not wish to be named. Moreover, the department considers restricting activities in the thickly-populated, ‘overtly socialising’ area a herculean task.
As per the department’s new strategy, antigen and antibody tests will be held across Covid First-Line Treatment Centres (CFLTC) in the district. “Giving special emphasis on West Kochi, antigen and antibody tests will be held across all CFLTCs. Ensuring a testing facility at the last end of the Covid containment chain will help us in restricting the spread of the virus in each area,” he said.
With the rise in local contact cases, the department has issued special directives to hospitals in the areas. “Though the number of patients visiting hospitals are very less, we have asked the health workers to strictly ensure testing for everyone,” said the official. “Though we closed down large areas by demarcating them as containment zones, it impacted the business community. We have received several pleas from business firms to ease the restrictions. We are planning to declare more areas as micro-containment zones with more restrictions,” said an officer from the West Kochi region.