Contact tracing leads to the discovery of 1,500 Covid-19 cases among contacts of Pakistani citizens returning from abroad

Teams under Central Contact Tracing (CCT) unit of the primary and secondary healthcare department have discovered 1,500 “hidden confirmed cases” of Covid-19 patients who had been in close contact with the Pakistani citizens who had returned home from abroad. A majority of the cases were traced to the provincial capital Lahore, followed by Rawalpindi, Gujrat, Gujranwala, Multan and Faisalabad.  Dr Ajmal Bhatti, Special secretary of the P&SHD, told Dawn news that the cases traced were close contacts of the overseas Pakistanis who had returned home during the pandemic. Ajmal shared that while many patients didn’t know they were carriers, a few had been deliberately avoiding testing. After screening of all contacts, including women and children, 1,500 of them were found to be positive for Covid-19. “Had these patients not been traced and quarantined, the number of the positive patients in the province might have been much higher”, said the special secretary.

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