Ahmedabad adopts South Korean model

Intensive surveillance, aggressive testing will ensure detection of cases: officials

10/04/2020, STAFF REPORTER,AHMEDABAD

Viral strategy: Fire personnel spraying disinfectant at Teen Darwaza in Ahmedabad.Vijay SonejiVijay Soneji

As COVID-19 cases surge, Ahmedabad is battling to contain the spread of the pandemic with intensive surveillance and aggressive testing to detect the maximum number of cases of infected people, and isolate them to curtail further spread of the disease and break the chain of transmission.

So far, 141 cases have been reported from Ahmedabad, with 58 reported on Thursday morning alone. Six persons have succumbed to their infection in the city. “Intensive surveillance and aggressive testing — these two approaches will ensure we detect as many cases as possible. One case proactively detected can mean up to ten lives saved, assuming one positive undetected person can infect around 400 people and considering about 3% mortality rate,” Municipal Commissioner Vijay Nehra said on Thursday.

The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) has now adopted the South Korean model of enhanced testing to ascertain the scale of the epidemic in the city of 6.5 million people.

“On 4th April, the number of samples tested from the city were 57 while after four days on 8th April, we tested 840 samples,” Mr. Nehra said. He posted details of samples tested on his Twitter handle.

Along with aggressive testing, the civic body has hardened social distancing measures by strictly regulating goings and comings in the entire walled city area, from where the maximum number of cases have emerged.

The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) has identified 14 clusters or hotspots where intensive surveillance, mass testing and contact tracing of infected persons will be carried out with enhanced focus.