TIRUCHY: Tiruchy, which had only 310 cases till mid-June, has seen a 75 per cent rise in cases in just 18 days. Of the 1,273 cases reported in the district till July 10, 75 per cent were reported since June 22. Initially, the spike was attributed to ‘Chennai returnees’, but even officials now admit that mismanagement, lack of proper contact tracing and inadequate testing have contributed to the rise in case load.
Chennai exodus & poor contact tracing
Ahead of an intense 12-day lockdown in Chennai and its surrounding districts beginning June 20, residents started leaving the capital in droves, heading towards districts such as Tiruchy. All of a sudden, a caseload that was only increasing by single digits, suddenly began jumping by 50 cases each day. While 75 cases were recorded on June 24, for instance, 87 were reported on June 29.
In the rural areas of Tiruchy district, the ‘Chennai factor’ has been particularly strong.
Despite this, contact tracing and isolation of patients and contacts remained a problem. In the congested parts of Tiruchy city, this delay enabled a quicker spread of the virus.
“One of the biggest mistakes was not tracing contacts fast enough, and allowing them to roam about freely. Only symptomatic contacts of positive patients were tested, which is not enough. Door-to-door screening, adopted in a big city like Chennai, could have easily been done in Tiruchy, but it wasn’t. This led to a four-fold increase in cases in city limits from June 20 to now,” admitted a health department official.
Civic body moved slowly
Busy areas like Big Bazaar street, which is densely populated with a mix of commercial establishments and residences, have recorded more than 50 cases in the past 10 days. Similarly, NSB road has recorded more than 107 cases because the Tiruchy Corporation failed to act swiftly.
Finally, on July 10, the Corporation decided to enforce a lockdown on three wards from where close to 50% of cases in the city limits have been reported daily.
“We have decided to cordon off Wards 16, 17, 18 of Tiruchy city, which have seen a flare up of cases. EB Road and nearby roads have recorded many cases in 10 days. If we are able to control the spread in these areas, we will be able to contain the spread of the virus. They will be cordoned off for 14 days,” said S Sivasubramanian, Corporation Commissioner.
Sivasubramanian also blamed large family functions for the rise in cases. However, officials too have been slow to act while clusters formed.
Even after an employee at a jewelry store on Tiruchy’s busy NSB road tested positive on June 22, the store continued to function and the patient’s contacts weren't tested. A whopping 107 people linked to the store have tested positive.
“That store has over 500 employees. Thirty of those employees were staying in a hostel with the employee who tested positive. As they continued to come to work, the virus spread. The employees and contacts, from Thuraiyur and Musiri, were tested only after much furore on July 1. Till July 9, 107 contacts have tested positive. If the employees had been immediately isolated and tested, this wouldn’t have happened,” said a corporation official.
However, the civic body has learnt from this mistake. When an employee of another big textile showroom tested positive, the store was immediately closed and all employees placed in isolation.
Low testing, high virulence?
Throughout the rise in cases, Tiruchy’s testing figures remained disproportionately low. Even till July 3, only 700 samples, on an average, were tested daily in the entire district. It was only after much criticism, that authorities have increased testing to over 1000 samples a day in the past week.
However, experts also cite the virulence of the virus as one of the reasons for the spike.
“Initially, when we had patients who had travelled to New Delhi, their contacts, even family members did not test positive. Now, in the patients who have travelled from Chennai, Maharashtra and West Bengal, we are seeing many more contacts testing positive. This is because the virus is easily communicable. Even a contact who spends 15 minutes with a positive patient can become positive,” said Dr Lakshmi, HOD of Microbiology, KAPV Vishwanathan Medical College.
Deaths rising too
An increase in deaths has also been reported in June and July and the district now has a mortality rate of 1.8 per cent, slightly higher than the official State figure of 1.4 per cent. The district has reported 23 deaths so far, of which 17 are from Tiruchy city. Of these, only 12 have been recorded in the health department’s bulletin.
The Road Ahead
According to Tiruchy Collector S Sivarasu the district is projected to have around 4800 cases by July end. “More than 1,000 samples will be tested every day and contact tracing is being done in a stringent manner, with a team appointed to handle it,” he said.
“As we are in a transition phase, we can arrest the virus at this stage. Clusters have been identified contact-wise, and institution-wise,” said Dr Aravind Kumar, District Epidemiologist.
While symptomatic patients are being admitted to Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Government Hospital, asymptomatic patients are being treated at the COVID care centre in Bharathidasan University’s Khajamalai campus. Another institution with 500 beds is ready at the Government College of Engineering in Sethurapatti, Srirangam.
“We are prepared for 1000 active cases with our new facility. But people are still roaming about without masks and aren’t following social distancing. We urge people to follow the norms,” the Collector added.