Community spread higher in urban slums: NGO study

Hyderabad: There is a high degree of community spread of Covid-19 cases among urban slums in the Old City, fever surveillance conducted by an NGO has found.

The exercise found that many residents, including children, were suffering from high fever and a high positivity rate was recorded. The surveillance was carried out in slums at Hasan Nagar, Shaheen Nagar, Rajendra Nagar and NS Kunta by the NGO Helping Hand Foundation.

Residents having fever are being directed to clinics for evaluation and testing.

For those with fever, RAT tests are also being carried out. Until now, 250 RAT tests have been done at random households across 10 slums — 140 in Shaheen Nagar, 50 in Wadi Mahmood, 40 in Hasan Nagar and 25 in NS Kunta. 

A high Covid-19 positivity rate of 13-17 per cent has been found after conducting about 250 RAT tests, indicating a high degree of community spread. Several children aged below 10 years were found to have high fever between 100 and 103 degrees Fahrenheit.

However, about 95 per cent of the patients are being managed under home care without the need for hospitalisation. None of the cases have required oxygen or hospitalisation so far.

Mujtaba Hasan Askari from the Helping Hand Foundation says during the earlier two waves, people from these slums were not that affected. “This time, that is not the case, probably because a lot of people are still not fully vaccinated and the virus has found new hosts,” he said.