COVID-19 Update: Bhubaneswar Civic Body Focuses On Home Isolation Patients

Bhubaneswar: With the spike in COVID-19 cases in the city, Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has intensified focus on the home isolation aspect of patients. BMC has engaged 79 doctors with the RRTs and four each at the three administrative zones.

Physical verification of the facilities for home isolation has become the focal point as the RRTs verify and check the physical requirements of a separate room and toilet at the patients’ home.

Each RRT team visits every home isolated patient across the city and perform these major duties — delivery of home isolation medical kit, pasting of posters declaring the home isolation facility at the place visited, detailed instructions for the caregivers of the home isolated patient and ensuring facilities like separate room and toilet for the patient so that others in the family do not be affected.

Home Isolation rate has increased from 42 per cent to 73.50 per cent in the city. During the last five days, the home isolation rate was 95.44 per cent. BMC has 54 RRT teams with 18 in each ward to monitor the patients. Helpline number 1929 has been operational round-the-clock for the last two weeks. Door to door mega health screening is also being carried out in 20 non-slum areas.

While the number of doctors associated with the RRTs varies from zone to zone, the four medical officers at each zonal headquarters make it sure to call individuals under home isolation and talk to them to assess their condition and whether they need any shifting assistance in case of any deterioration in health. Each medical officer is assigned five to six wards under the ZDCs.

IT tools in use

Apart from the regular visits by the RRT teams, IT tools have also been put to use to make the monitoring of the health conditions of the home isolation patients easier.

The four zonal medical officers are doing video conferencing with IT platforms like Zoom Meeting to keep the patients of the zones in the loop along with senior doctors from the BMC, Additional District Urban Public Health (ADUPHO) under the Health and Family Welfare Department.

Zonal medical officers have also formed WhatsApp groups of patients under their jurisdiction so that their health conditions could be tracked.

House owners need not worry

It is to be noted that the house owners and neighbours should not be worried about the home isolated patients in close proximity. However, the patients should not go outside their facilities and the caregivers must ensure this.

“The asymptomatic and mild symptomatic COVID-19 positive patients are recovering faster and they need not worry about hospitalization. The caregivers should also ensure balanced and nutritious diet for the Home Isolation patients and keep the patient’s room sanitized and well-ventilated,” said a leaflet circulated by BMC for public awareness.