Tracing the primary and secondary contacts of close to 2,000 people who recently returned to Telangana from a two-day religious programme in Delhi is the task staring at the State police machinery right now. As number of coronavirus positive cases among these returnees started rising, intelligence and local police teams are going to every nook and corner of the State to identify their primary and secondary contacts.
Identification of these contacts, also described as close and casual contacts, has become crucial to check further spread of COVID-19. Preliminary inquiries suggested that there could be a few hundred persons from the State who attended the meeting in Delhi.
When a septuagenarian from Hyderabad died while undergoing treatment at a hospital late on Saturday, routine inquiries by Health and police officials revealed that he returned to city after attending a religious meeting in Delhi. With his samples testing positive for COVID-19, police began verifying with Delhi authorities only to realise that close to 2,000 people from Telangana participated in the Delhi meeting.
Late on Monday night, police identified nearly 1,300 members. By Tuesday evening, 700 more were identified. “The figure is likely to rise at least by another 200 from the inputs we are getting from districts,” a police officer unwilling to be named said.
Police have details of about 2,000 persons who had travelled to Delhi and returned to the State. But the biggest challenge for them is tracing their primary and secondary contacts. “We are sending these people to hospitals for tests and quarantine. Immediate family members are their primary contacts and all of them are being home quarantined,” police officials said.
During initial inquiries, not many people came forward to divulge details of fellow participants at the Delhi meeting. “But when word spread that six of those who attended the meeting died , many voluntarily started giving details,” the police said.
Along with details of railway reservations, the police are trying to identify how many travelled in general compartments to reach Telangana. “No one has clear information on this. Nevertheless, we’re trying our best to trace them,” the authorities said.
Not leaving anything to chance, police teams are asking the Delhi meeting attendees to recall who all they met and where all they moved after their return. List of persons they had met and places they had gone around are being prepared to identity secondary contacts.
“Considerable number of these people are from middle or lower middle class families. Taking all facts and circumstances into consideration, efforts are on to ascertain to what extent the virus might have spread,” the police officials said.
