The State government has consented to conducting COVID-19 tests on all the employees of the pharmaceutical company in Nanjangud, and their primary and secondary contacts, who are currently in facility quarantine and home quarantine in Mysuru and Nanjangud respectively. Nanjangud is a COVID-19 cluster because of many positive cases.
Deputy Commissioner Abhiram G. Sankar on Saturday said permission had been given for conducting 100 per cent tests of all of them and the swab samples of the primary contacts of employees of Jubilant Generics Limited had been collected and sent for tests. The secondary contacts of the employees will also undergo tests, which determine the contagion. “We have received more testing kits,” he added.
After Nanjangud, lockdown had been tightened in Hebya and Someshwara villages in the taluk in view of some positive cases and the secondary contacts had been sent to the facility quarantine.
Out of 45 active COVID-19 cases, 35 are linked to the pharma company and its first patient was discharged on Friday. Five more persons linked to the company tested positive on Saturday, increasing the total number of positive cases to 47.
Mr. Sankar said a door-to-door surveillance of people showing Influenza like Illness (ILI) symptoms had been launched and 41,757 people had been covered in Nanjangud, which had been declared as a “containment area”. So far, 71 people had been identified with such symptoms and tests would be done for them if required, he added.
As many as 961 teams had been constituted for the surveillance and they would initially focus on the areas where the positive cases had been reported.
The Deputy Commissioner clarified that the surveillance was not being done to target anybody or any area as the entire district was being covered. “This is not an attempt to stigmatise any person or to conclude them as infected.”
Mr .Sankar urged the people to cooperate with the medical teams when they visit their homes and explain to them if they had come across flu-like symptoms such as fever, cold, cough etc. Such persons would be referred to the fever clinics which are expected to start soon, he said, adding that no tests would be done at the clinics if people visit them directly.
