In order to upscale their efforts to break the chain of COVID transmission, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) has identified at least 14,000 people who are suspected to be highly vulnerable to getting infected and infecting others on a “superspreader” scale. The municipal body has started screening and testing them for COVID-19.
As quoted by a national daily, in a statement by Rajiv Kumar Gupta, Additional Chief Secretary, appointed in charge of Ahmedabad said, “It was reported that in each zone 2,000 superspreaders are there. It was decided to screen all of them, with a target of 500 every day in each ward”. Lare on, in a video statement, he said that as many as 25 percent of the people identified as “superspreaders” were found positive when tested for COVID-19.
The Additional Chief Secretary said that ‘superspreaders’ like people who are working at vegetable shops, grocery stores, supermarkets, ice-cream parlours or are involved in delivery work become a potent source of infection for many. Hence, all shops and home-delivery services except milk and medicine shall remain closed for the next seven days starting from today, May 7, he added.
As per the civic body, all the high-risk traders and vendors in the entire Ahmedabad are expected to be screened by May 13. More than 220 such traders have tested positive in the city since April 21 and over 80 percent of them are vegetable vendors. The civic body had also started issuing cards to the vendors containing date on which they were last screened for body temperature. The card has been made mandatory for the vendors to sell and will be valid for a week.
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