Hyderabad: A sudden outbreak of Covid-19 cases, 33 in two days in Chegurthi in Karimnagar Rural mandal on Thursday and Friday, have set alarm bells ringing in the health department.
Almost all of the 33 individuals were from among those who attended a funeral in the village recently. The department set up a medical camp and is testing all the villagers. Fears of the spread of fresh Covid-19 cases outside the village too now exist with some residents of the nearby Durshad village tooattending the funeral.
Two from the family of the deceased, whose funeral gathering is believed to have resulted in the fresh outbreak, were already suffering from Covid-19, officials said, adding that efforts were now on to trace all the primary contacts of the 33 persons who were detected to have been infected by the Coronavirus in Chegurthi.
There are fears that there may have been some superspreaders in the funeral gathering who may have contributed to the sudden spurt in cases in the village.
Dr K.K. Aggarwal, president of Confederation of Medical Associations in Asia and Oceania, said, “There are two reasons for the formation of clusters. Either there is a super spreader or there is a mutation in the virus. Both of these must be investigated to control it locally.”
Super spreaders of virus are those whose body sheds a lot of virus. They can be ailing or asymptomatic but whoever comes in touch with them gets infected due to the unusually large amounts of virus that is shed.
Super spreaders were noted from March 2020 to May 2020 in Telangana where a single person was found to have infected 40 people. The surveillance officials who were tracking and tracing stated that it is a part of infectious disease spread.
Explaining the trend, a scientist at the CCMB said, “There are super spreaders but are we carrying out surveillance. ‘Trace and track’ has to continue during the pandemic.” He said the indiscipline of people in not following safety protocols is also the reason for spread. If people are not going to follow there are chances of more clusters and further spread.”
Karimnagar district has been since a week noting an increase in cases. It has from February 12 to 18 recorded 64 cases according to the official medical bulletin.
