A 52-year-old autorickshaw driver could potentially light up a good part of Thiruvananthapuram city with COVID-19. On the day he developed symptoms (June 12) and in the days soon after, the period when doctors say he would have been the most infective, he was perhaps one of the most active drivers in the capital.
The man has by now infected his wife and two daughters. The samples of his neighbours will be taken soon but most of his possible contacts, which could be in the range of 80-100, are still unknown.
The district authorities on Sunday put out the auto driver's route map. Besides long trips with passengers to the deepest corners of the capital city, it was found that the man also moonlighted as a junior artiste. He played bit roles in serials to earn some extra bucks.
On the day he developed symptoms, he turned up for a shooting at a house in Poojappura, and once his part was done that day he went on his usual evening auto rides with passengers.
He was especially active, feverishly so, along the busy eastern fringe of the city, between Manacaud and Poojappura, most of the days working both morning and night shifts and doing on an average seven to eight trips a day.
On June 13, after taking a tender coconut from a wayside shop at Kalady because according to him he was feeling weak, he visited a Community Health Centre in Iranimuttom, near Manacaud.
Sources in the Health Department said that since he had "suspicious" symptoms, the man was told to visit the General Hospital. He bought some medicines from a pharmacy nearby, and ignored the advice. But a day later, when symptoms worsened, he visited the CHC once again. The route map shows he visited a lab also that day, for a routine blood test.
The very same day he visited a bank and a margin free store near his house. Next day on, it was like business as usual. There were long trips from the heart of the city to the outskirts and back.
Conditions further worsened and on June 17 he visited a private hospital near the Attukal Bhagavathy Temple. There also he was advised to visit the General Hospital immediately. A day later he visited the General Hospital and his sample was taken. A day later he was declared positive.
Sources said the auto driver could have been tested earlier if the Iranimuttom CHC had collected his phone number and did regular follow-ups.
Tracing the driver's contacts, especially his passengers, seems complicated. The man has no idea of the people who had travelled behind him. His auto number has been publicised (KL-01-BJ-4836). However, authorities know that travellers seldom note the number of the autorickshaw they get into, mostly in a hurry.
Still authorities hope that the timing on the route map may alert some who could have travelled in the auto between May 30 and June 18. What is troubling authorities are the possible contacts of the man's daughter, now positive, who had functioned as a scribe during the SSLC examination held on May 28.
The incident has, nonetheless, left the city authorities wiser. It has now been mandated that all autorickshaws and taxis should carry a trip sheet (dairy or a notebook) with the names and address of the passengers along with the point from which they got into the vehicle and the destination.
This way, contact tracing could be made easier if any such incidents happen in future.
