'Trace-Test-Track-Treat-Vaccination': DPH's instructions as Covid cases increase

CHENNAI: With a surge in the cases of Covid in the State, the Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine has issued instructions to the Deputy Director of Health Services in all the districts to strengthen the tracking, testing, treating, vaccination and adherence to Covid-appropriate behaviour among people.

In a letter to deputy directors, Director of Public Health and Preventive Medicine Dr T S Selvavinayagam said that more emphasise should be bestowed on continued focus on the five-fold strategy i.e., Trace-Test-Track-Treat-Vaccination and adherence to Covid-19 appropriate behaviour.

The deputy directors of Health Services have been instructed to ensure effective surveillance by monitoring of emerging clusters of new cases, if any, by testing of symptomatic individuals, at risk contacts of laboratory confirmed cases and individuals with co-morbidities as per latest ICMR guidelines.

He further said that reports should be reported in Integrated Health Information Platform (IHIP) portal so as not to missed out early warning signals and to control the spread of infection. Persons coming from other states should be screened for symptoms at entry point in the border districts, railway stations and if found symptomatic should be subjected to RT-PCR test for Covid.

The district officials have been instructed to focus on aggressive and sustained genome sequencing and intensified surveillance. The genome sequencing of samples from community clusters, family clusters, positive samples from children, infection among young adults with severe lung involvement, deceased patients due to Covid without any co-morbidities, international traveller positive patients, vaccine breakthrough cases should be done at the State Public Health Laboratory.

DPH stated that the enforcement of provisions under Section 76(2) of Tamil Nadu Public Health. Act, 1939, by imposing penalties through empowered officials for failure to adhere.