Being the most populous state of India, with a population of more than 199 812 341, Uttar Pradesh fight against COVID-19 very systematically and challenging. The state government put in place a mechanism to evaluate the status and quality of contact tracing to guide policy level decision making for an informed public health response when the covid cases see a sudden surge.
A well-trained team of 800 field monitors conducted telephonic interviews of laboratory-confirmed positive cases through a pre-determined set of questions developed by the WHO team to maintain a uniform response. The 800 field monitors undertook a massive exercise to assess the status and quality of contact tracing amongst the 58 000 laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19 in 75 districts across the state during two weeks from 01-14 August 2020. The overarching objective of the survey was to check the testing status of the family members, reasons for non-testing, and information on clinical symptoms.
Data were collected daily at the state office for analysis and shared with the government regularly for their review. The WHO field monitors also used this opportunity to strengthen public health education through the advocacy of necessary infection prevention and control measures. This draws attention to the fact that early and systematic tracking of contacts through a proper mechanism is imperative to put up a responsive public health response to contain the pandemic.
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