Gurugram: In light of the district having the highest number of Covid-19 patients recuperating in home isolation in Haryana (according to the state health department data), health officials said complacency in following home quarantine and isolation norms is one of the main factors leading to further transmission of coronavirus to other members of an infected person’s family.

As the number of active cases is climbing, the health department, as part of its revised strategy to curb the same, is now focusing on proper quarantine of the family members of infected persons as many people are getting infected within their homes after one family member tests positive. Till August 29, at least 81% of the people infected in Gurugram were under home isolation. This increased to 89.45% on Wednesday.

Dr Virender Yadav, chief medical officer, said that health care workers as well as ASHA and Auxiliary Nurse Midwife (ANM) workers have started house-to-house surveillance to create awareness and identify symptomatic cases. “Our ground team is active again to create awareness among people, especially in congested areas to follow basic norms for preventing coronavirus infection,” said Yadav.

In the last week of August, the union ministry of health and family welfare released a manual for surveillance teams. It stresses upon house-to-house search for suspected cases and contact tracing, information to be given to the community on hand and respiratory hygiene, physical distancing and stigma.

“People are no longer following basic health hygiene even if they are home isolated. Others within the same family are also not focusing on quarantine, which is leading to rapid transmission of infection. Most of the new cases that are being reported are those where the entire family is infected,” said Yadav.

As per the health department’s strategy, family members of an infected person have to be kept under home quarantine for 14 days and high-risk contacts (with co-morbidities) suspected of contracting the virus are to be shifted to Covid care centres to prevent mortality, Yadav said.

To facilitate awareness, Amit Khatri, deputy commissioner, on Wednesday flagged off three battery-operated rickshaws, which will move around the city and announce messages on quarantine, isolation, social distance, wearing of masks and sanitisation. He said that awareness generation is critical to counter Covid-19.

“All over the country and in the region we are noticing a resurgence in coronavirus cases. There are multiple aspects to it such as movement having increased, and even people are complacent in following the basic norms to prevent infection. To address such issues the focus is now on creating awareness,” said Khatri.