Covid-19 outbreak fear makes Odisha govt press curfew button!

Bhubaneswar: With Odisha having reported two Covid-19 positive cases within 72 hours, the alerted State administration went into an overdrive on Friday. The State government's decision to clamp a 48 - hour curfew from 8 PM evening today in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Bhadrak hints at how the cities are emerging as Covid-19 hotspots in Odisha.

Even Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy has conceded to the fact of Bhubaneswar emerging as Covid-19 hotspot in Odisha. "As Bhubaneswar has recorded 4 out of six novel coronavirus positives in the State, and since the surveillance purpose seems greatly restricted even during lockdown period, the government deemed it necessary to impose complete shutdown," said Tripathy.

The danger of Covid-19 cases spiralling up in the city looks realistic when one looks at the medical history of patient 5 detected in the city on Wednesday. And the curfew intervention is taken to minimise the damage, means containment of the Covid-19 spread.

A look at the medical history of the Patient - 5 shows onset of symptoms on March 5. The patient -5 progressed to exhibit moderate Covid-19 symptoms by March 13. The case history shows P5 detected of novel coronavirus positive on April 1, when his symptoms progressed to exhibit severe Covid-19 symptoms (breathing problem).

Why the timeline of a Covid-19 patient assumes significance?

As per a detailed virological analysis of nine patients in Germany, the revelation is COVID-19 infected people 'shed' or excrete more viral particles during the first week of symptoms.

The study says the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 actively replicates in the upper respiratory tract of the patients and hence results in high levels of shedding during the early stages of infection, when the patients have mild symptoms.

It is this fear that has forced the hands of Odisha government to clamp curfew in Bhubaneswar.

Since symptoms manifested in P5 as early as March 5, and detection happened on April 1, the unhindered contacts of/with P5 till mid-March raises questions on State's Covid-19 surveillance.

Moreover, as P5 has no travel history, and as the State surveillance team is yet to find any epidemiological link to any suspected Covid-19 contact, Odisha, at the moment, may be showing signs of first community transmission in the country.

Alerted over possible widespread transmission, the State government has enforced curfew, or say enforced community quarantine to go for mass contact tracing. As per WHO, containment intervention is essential when there is a fear of epidemic outbreak in a locality.

Odisha government's shutdown or curfew strategy is, therefore, seen as an important policy intervention to contain Covid-19 outbreak in Bhubaneswar.