1,180 suspected 'coronavirus carriers' yet to be traced in Punjab

Authorities in Punjab are on the look-out for over 1,000 people, who came in contact with the patients of COVID-19, reveals an official report.

According to the daily situation report dated April 29, by the Directorate of General Health Services in Punjab, 1,180 people have been identified as “to be traced” across the provinces. Of these, the largest number of people who must be tracked are in Lahore, 797, followed by Sialkot, 106, and Multan, 86.

In the report, these individuals have been listed under the title, “COVID-19 positive cases” and were included in the final tally of confirmed cases for Punjab on April 29.

But Mudasir Ahmed, the deputy secretary at Punjab’s specialized healthcare and medical education department, which generates these reports jointly with the primary and secondary healthcare department, said that the 1,000 plus cases were only suspects, and not positive cases of the virus.

“As a preemptive measure, we consider suspected cases as positive, until they test negative,” Ahmed explained over the phone, “These are contacts of coronavirus patients who have yet to be traced. They are likely to be infected too.”

The location of these people, their phone numbers or addresses, are being gathered as of now, he added. “We have a really big and successful mechanism in place for contact-tracing in Punjab.”

A previous report dated April 26, listed 1,012 people as “to be traced”, which on April 29’s report increased to 1,180.

Interestingly, the daily situation report of April 30, has removed the section that lists “to be traced” cases altogether. It is unclear why prompted the decision.

Nisar Ahmed, the director operations at the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA), also insists that these people were yet to be located. “We already know where all the positive cases are,” he said, “These are people who came into contact with confirmed patients and could also be carriers.”

Related: Over 1,000 suspected 'COVID-19 carriers' yet to be traced in Punjab

On March 30, Ahmed told Geo.tv that the Punjab government is using cellphone data and artificial intelligence to track people in the province. He said that the provincial authorities can trace the movements of each one of the 11 million people in Lahore, Punjab’s capital city.

“Anyone who leaves the airport, we know exactly where there they went, where they stopped and for how many minutes. This state-of-the-art technology is being used in Punjab for the first time.”