Two Panchayats Declared Containment Zone; Household Screening For COVID-19 Begins In Odisha’s Ganjam

Ganjam: The district administration on Sunday declared nine villages under Khallikote block of Ganjam district as containment zones after 12 persons engaged in different Temporary Medical Camps (TMCs) in Badapalli panchayat tested coronavirus positive.

The total number of COVID-19 cases in Ganjam has gone up to 597.

The villages are Ghodapada, Sialliapata, Kurlimpur, Gundripalli, Badapallu, Sanabala, Nuapalli, Chhakasing and Devijahara.

Besides, Mareinuagaon, Nalasingh, Khasula, Sorisaparaganjara, Badapala, B. Bhaliapadar, P.Balarampur, Kharipalli, Kiapalli and Kumarsingh villages of the panchayat have been declared as buffer zones.

Follow-up actions, including contact tracing, have been taken up, while the movement of people and vehicles in the area has been prohibited in these areas.

According to the official notification, Additional Tehsildar of Khallikote Jyotimaya Dash has been given the charge of the containment and buffer zones and Chatrapur Sub-Collector assigned the task to supply essential and medical requirements in these areas.

Inspector-in-charge of Khallikote Police Station has been asked to create a temporary check post at the entry point of Badapalli gram panchayat to regulate entry and exit of people to and from the containment zone. The SP has also been asked to provide adequate manpower and logistic support for the check posts at the marked point, the order added.

Similarly, district collector Vijay Amruta Kulange has declared Biripur village under Aitipur panchayat as containment zone after three health workers engaged in a quarantine centre tested positive for the virus.

Also Read: Entire Staff Of Jarada Police Station In Odisha’s Ganjam Sent On Quarantine

The administration has also decided to conduct a mega health screening in each household of the district from June 8 to June 12.

According to an official notification, Gram Panchayats will be divided into units having 700 households and each unit will be assigned to a team comprising local teacher/AWW/Health Worker/ANM for health screening.

The team will visit each household of the specified area and conduct thermal screening of each individual/member of that household and fill up information in an enclosed format.

If any symptomatic person is found during health screening, the information will be immediately transmitted to the concerned RRT. The same day, the concerned RRT will visit the house of symptomatic person and undertake detailed medical check-up of all the members of the family. A person found with COVID-19 symptoms would then be referred to the nearest COVID Care Centre with a detailed referral note.

Once the symptomatic suspect case is referred to COVID Care Centre, the Nodal Medical Officer will conduct a thorough check-up of the person and report the findings to the office of the CDM & PHO, Ganjam, sources added, the notification said.

The CDM and PHO, Ganjam, have been directed to provide thermal screening thermometers to the health staff engaged in the task.