Hyderabad health officials turn detectives, work through the night to trace Omicron patients
HYDERABAD: Like detectives, Health officials spent the whole of Tuesday night in Tolichowki, tracking down the two patients who tested positive for Omicron.
The Health officials had received the test results from the labs late on Tuesday, and immediately tried to reach the two patients, only to find the contact and addresses incorrect.
“We found the patient from Kenya at around 2 am, in the wee hours of Wednesday, by sheer luck as the contact number given was not hers. We reached the address provided by the patient and were repeatedly calling the number. We noticed one man using the phone and suspected that it was his number the patient had given. It did turn out to be his number and he helped us connect to the actual patient,” explained Dr. Anuradha Pilli, Special Public Health Officer (SPHO).
Tracing the second patient proved to be much more difficult. This patient, from Somalia, could not be traced till Wednesday afternoon as both the address and phone number provided by him were incorrect.
He was eventually found at Paramount Colony in Tolichowki, after the police intervened.
“The entire IAS Colony and Paramount Colony are now being treated as containment zones. We have decided to organise an RT PCR test camp for all foreigners staying here and conducting holding door-to-door tests,” revealed Dr. Anuradha Pilli.
The main issues the teams are now facing are that of communicating with the foreigners due to the language barrier and also convincing the secondary contacts about the gravity of the situation.
“A total of 17 teams have been formed. We have approached managements of the local mosques and colony representatives to help test all residents. We have also sought help of three translators due to the language barrier,” the SPHO said.
Despite their best efforts, each home is taking up to 30 minutes to counsel and conduct a test.