Earlier on July 5, a police constable and resident of secunderabad tested positive for the coronavirus. Three days later, none of his family members, who are primary contacts, have been tested for the virus by medical authorities and their residence has not been sealed as a containment zone. In fact, the family members themselves are reaching out to the Greater hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GMHC) and police, urging them to contain and sanitize their building.
Meanwhile TNM spoke to several residents in hyderabad whose neighbors and family members have tested positive for the coronavirus. While other states have publicized a list of containment zones, telangana has not done so, despite a High Court’s direction and the Ministry of home Affairs Unlock 2 guidelines. According to the MHA guidelines, “All containment zones will be demarcated by the district authorities after taking into consideration the guidelines of MoHFW with the objective of breaking the chain of transmission. These containment zones will be notified on the websites by the respective district Collectors and by the states/UTs and the information will be shared with the MoHFW.”
Since May despite criticism from several quarters, telangana stopped testing asymptomatic primary contacts. The authorities instead told them to quarantine at home. This is against the indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) guidelines, which says, "Asymptomatic direct and high-risk contacts with co-morbidities (lung disease, heart disease, liver disease, kidney disease, diabetes, neurological disorders, and blood disorders) of a confirmed case to be tested once between day 5 and day 10 of coming into contact." The resident also claimed that the authorities have not conducted any contact tracing activity.
