Haryana to launch screening drive in rural areas to combat COVID spread

Tribune News Service

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Chandigarh, May 8

As the global COVID-19 pandemic after affecting big cities, is now hitting rural areas hard, Haryana Government while adopting proactive ‘Test, Track and Treat’ strategy to curb swiftly spreading wave of COVID-19 in villages has decided to launch a special door to door screening drive in villages by constituting 8,000 Multidisciplinary teams.

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar while presiding over a review meeting with top officials of Health and Panchayat Department here today directed that proactive strategies like conducting door-to-door health screening camps covering each house, constituting special dedicated multidisciplinary teams for screening and converting Dharamshalas, Government Schools, AYUSH Centres into Isolation Centres should be adopted to contain the virus spread.

“We have to protect rural areas from this deadly infection at any cost, therefore every officer concerned should ensure that special vigilance is kept on every village and for this a massive  COVID-19 screening campaign should be conducted in all villages of the state,”  directed Khattar.

He said a special awareness campaign-cum-counselling of rural inhabitants should be done and for this officers of health department along with ASHA workers, former and present public representatives in each village have to play key roles in encouraging people to get themselves tested in the screening camps.

Apart from this, dedicated efforts should be made to raise awareness about safety practices and the precautionary measures to control the spread of COVID-19 infection in rural areas.

“Further strengthening of medical infrastructure along with ramping up COVID-19 management preparations coupled with aggressive surveillance, stringent containment, focused clinical management  should also be done in every village on priority basis, “directed the Chief Minister.

8,000 multidisciplinary teams to be constituted

The Chief Minister directed that about 8,000 multidisciplinary teams led by trainee doctors, including health department officials, ASHA and Anganwadi workers, should be constituted across the State so that door-to-door health screening of households can be done in every village.  He said that proper screening of every family should be done along with the recording of their oxygen and temperature levels.

“If during the screening camps any person is found having COVID-like symptoms of fever, cold and cough, then the person should be advised to stay in home isolation immediately so as to prevent the possibility of infection spread. Approximately one team per 500 households should be deployed for conducting the health screening,” said Khattar.

He further said that while conducting the screening these multidisciplinary teams should ensure that the patients having mild and moderate symptoms are immediately given prescribed preventive medicines for COVID-19 infection. Besides this, it should also be ensured that those having severe symptoms are right away hospitalized to get the required treatment.

Special screening camps to be set up in rural areas 

The Chief Minister directed that since in rural areas the virus is spreading fast, therefore, special screening camps focusing on ‘Test, Track and Treat’ strategy should be adopted in each village so that anyone having COVID-19 symptoms can be caught early and further, the possibility of infection spread can be prevented.  Besides this, the Health Department has also been directed to impart necessary training to people in these villages so that they can spread the required awareness for the disease, he added. Through these camps the officers concerned should ensure that every member of 60 lakh families residing in Haryana is Tested, Tracked and Treated.