Capital Complex deputy commissioner Komkar Dolum on Wednesday said the district administration keeps its options open in regards to imposing lockdown in the capital or declaring a specific area as containment zone.
But, a decision in this regard would be taken only if the situation calls for it, the deputy commissioner said.
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The statement of the DC comes a day after the Arunachal Pradesh Students Union (AAPSU) had demanded an immediate declaration of lockdown in the Capital Complex for three-seven days after two frontline workers of the State Quarantine Centre in Lekhi village tested positive for Covid19.
While one of the frontline workers is a storekeeper of the quarantine centre, the other works at the thermal screening section.
The duo seems to have contracted the virus without coming in direct contact with any positive patients.
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The AAPSU had reasoned that immediate declaration of lockdown would enable swift contact-tracing of the first and second contacts and help break the possible chain of community transmission in the capital region.
Addressing media persons at his office here, Dolum informed that the entire primary and secondary contacts of the two Covid-19 patients have been traced out.
“A total of 114 primary contacts of the two frontline workers have been traced out and tests were carried out accordingly. Out of the 114, thirty four have tested negative while the results of the remaining 80 samples are awaited,” Dulom said.
In regards to secondary contacts of the storekeeper the DC said they have traced out 53 secondary contacts and also collected 33 swab samples so far.
“The samples of the remaining 20 persons will anyhow be collected by the end of day,” Dolum said.
The DC said the second patient who worked at the thermal screening section had a total of 25 secondary contacts and their swab samples have been collected.
“We now have 20 samples to collect while the results of 80 samples are awaited. Once the results come out, we will then decide on whether to impose a lockdown or declare an area a containment zone,” he said.
The DC also expressed apprehension on how the two frontline workers had contracted the virus without coming in direct contact with the positive patients.
“There are possibilities that the duo would have been infected due to carelessness and this something we cannot afford to do at this juncture. We have to be responsible and at least wear masks while going out and follow the basic social distancing norms,” he said.
Dolum also requested the public not to believe in fake news doing rounds on social media and also to stay away from forwarding or sharing the names and other information of the positive patients.
The police have been asked to strictly look into the matter and serious action will be taken against the perpetrators, he added.
District Medical Officer Dr M Perme requested the public not to panic and said there is a low chance of a community transmission as the entire primary and secondary contacts of the two patients have been traced.
Dr Perme said that the swab samples of the primary contacts would be tested again after 5 days while both the primary and secondary contacts would have to go through the antibody and reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests twice.