Bhubaneswar: The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Saturday launched mega door-to-door health screening programme in non-slum areas of the city in order to further strengthen its measures in fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
A two-member team comprising an AYUSH doctor and female health worker or a teacher has started visiting the households under three zones of the civic body to collect information about any illness or flu-like symptoms or COVID-19 symptoms, travel history, elderly people and children.
As many as 42 teams have been deployed in the North and South-West zones each and 55 teams in South-East zone of the BMC to carry out the health screening. One team is tasked has to cover at least 100 households every day and the screening will continue for three weeks.
People engaged in the survey wear basic safety gear such as masks and gloves and carry hand sanitizers. The teams have been given thermal guns to check temperature and pulse oximeters to monitor a person’s oxygen saturation level.
Apart from collecting basic details like name, age, address and contact, the teams are asking questions about symptoms of cough, cold, fever or breathing problem and whether or not they use the Sachetak mobile App, and if they have symptoms of flu to detect COVID-19.
“It’s a public welfare exercise, and we urge the citizens to be truthful while providing information to the surveyors. The aim is to identify people with COVID-like symptoms, create a comprehensive database and then get them tested to check its spread,” said ADUPHO (Additional District Urban Public Health Officer) Dr CVSN Rao.
On the first day of the mega exercise, the residents cooperated and provided all details. “Today, the response has been good as people are willing and cooperate with us when we visit their homes explaining about the initiative of BMC for public safety,” said Dr. Sanjay Kumar Mahapatra, an AYUSH doctor engaged in the survey.
The information collected at the end of the exercise will be compiled and the data can be used to map out areas that are reporting more cases of COVID-like symptoms and help in further surveillance activities.
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