In the initial days of Covid-19 positive cases, almost all the health bulletins of all states that witnessed a 10s of cases, have details of patients, including the areas they have stayed. But as cases mushroomed, they have stopped giving patient details, but only releasing the number of cases spiked on each day. This led to huge disappointment.
Experts say that only if the address or the area of the patient is mentioned in the bulletin, along with their gender and age, other residents and the general public will get alerted. That will not make them stay home but also understand how Covid-19 is infecting people in India, aged 3 days old to 93 years old. On that aspect, Arogya Andhra, the official COVID-19 response handle for Andra Pradesh state, is doing a fabulous job.
They have not only released the numbers of positive cases each day but also released the list of all the 140 patients (without names) and mentioned their addresses, age, gender and districts along with travel history, such that other people will get alerted. Apart from this, the health department clarified that the houses of all these people are quarantined along with family members.
On all counts, this is the best to keep people in the know about Covid-19 positive cases, rather than just telling the world ‘numbers’.
