Manipur: Massive contact tracing on as lab staff tests COVID-19 positive in Churachandpur

Imphal: Without taking any chances of local transmission after a lab staff reportedly tested positive for COVID-19 in Manipur’s Churachandpur district, contact tracing exercise has been intensified in the district on Thursday.

According to chief medical officer (CMO) Dr Vumchinpau Tonsing, the staff of Advance Diagnostics, a privately-run laboratory in Churachandpur, might have got exposed to the virus from one of the clients who had tested positive for COVID-19.

On July 11, one BSF jawan posted in the district had visited the lab and later he was declared positive for the virus on July 18. Following the report of the positive case, all the nine staff had undergone testing, to which one male staff turned out to be positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday.

As per reports, details of at least 615 individuals were recorded in the private lab between the period of July 11 and 20. Similarly, a public notice was also issued by the CMO on Thursday calling the individuals who visited Advance Diagnostics on IB Road near ZEO western gate, Lamka in Churachandpur during the 10 days to voluntarily submit their information to the district administration or health department in the public interest.

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The order is to prevent local transmission of COVID-19 in the communities, it said.

Those individuals who have come in contact or visited the lab within the given period were asked for strict home quarantine until they were tested and the result is known.

According to Dr Tonsing, a massive contact tracing has been carried out at Khumbi village since the male staff who had tested positive for COVID-19 visited his village on July 18 and returned to the district headquarters the following next day.

It will take a couple of days to ascertain the total number of primary contacts from the village of the lab staff, said Dr Tonsing.

So far, the district has recorded total 178 confirmed cases, of which 140 persons have already recovered. At present, the number of active cases is 38.

On Thursday, as many as 55 fresh cases were detected positive for COVID-19 in Manipur, taking the accumulative cases to 2,115.

The number of active cases in the state is 655 and as many as 1,460 patients have recovered to date.

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