LAUSR

Background:An outbreak of unusual viral pneumonia in Wuhan China, identified as novel Corona virus as evolved into global health crisis and it has been declared as pandemic by WHO on 11th March 2020.Indian government took strin- gent measures to control the outbreak by implementing lockdown on 22nd March and improvising the diagnostic and isolation facility. Reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT- PCR) testing for presence of infection occupies a critical role in diagnosis, managing the patient and also in implementing the preventive control measures both at indi- vidual level and at a community and global level. Methods:Nasopharyngeal/Oropharyngeal swab samples from symptomatic patients and the contacts of positive pa- tients were tested by RT-PCR from March to November 2020. Individual sample details including age,gender,address,co morbidities, symptomatic/ asymptomatic, history of contact,history of travel,were registered in standard sample refer- ral form (SRF) prescribed by ICMR. Results of RT-PCR test and the above data were analysed with reference to the phas- es of lockdown and its role in the control of virus transmission. 5 phases of lockdown were described, phase 1: 24th March to 5th April, phase 2: 6th April to 30th April. Phase 3: 1st May to 15th June, phase 4: 16th June to 15th July, phase 5: 16th July to 15th August. Results:A total of 30351 samples were tested using RT-PCR and 8604 (28.3%) were positive. Among the positives 61.3% were male and 38.7% were female. Positivity during phase 1 was 4.4%, in phase 2 was 6.7%, in phase 3 was 22.6%, in phase 4 was 12.8% and in phase 5 was 41%. After phase 5 positivity was 33.4%. Conclusions: Results of the present study has shown that lockdown and intervention undertaken in a timely manner helped in curbing the spread of the virus thus controlling the morbidity and mortality. Importance of interventions such as use of mask, hand hygiene and social distancing is reinforced for the containment of the disease.