Emphasis on rural areas as Jharkhand launches door to door campaign in villages to screen people for COVID19
On the first day of the exercise's implementation, health workers were trained by the national rural health mission officials in Jharkhand who have been tasked with training these frontline workers to conduct rapid antigen tests in rural areas.
The surveyors would look for positive COVID cases in the households and enquire about any deaths or infections in the last two months.
Three days after Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren directed the health department to launch a ‘door to door’ campaign to limit the spread of COVID19 outbreak, efforts are underway to train the health workers to conduct the screening exercise in the state’s rural areas.
The door to door survey has been launched in almost 4,400 panchayats across 24 districts in the state.
A press statement issued by the state government informed that the national rural health mission (NRHM) officials in Jharkhand have been tasked with training the frontline workers to conduct RAT (rapid antigen test).
“With an aim to ensure the protection of almost three crore (30 million), training of Sakhi Mandal (women’s self help group) along with thousands of health workers and other stakeholders began on May 21. These training sessions are being organised at every block across the state,” the statement stated.
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“The ANMs (auxiliary nurse midwives), CHOs (community health officers), MPWs (multipurpose health workers) and sahiya didis (government sponsored health activists) are being trained to take oxygen readings by using an oximeter and identify symptoms in COVID19 suspects,” it added.
The training will enable these workers to conduct screen test while performing door to door surveys across the state, the statement noted.
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It is informed that the surveyors would look for positive COVID cases in the households and enquire about any deaths or infections in the last two months.
“If one person from a family is found positive, the entire family will have to be tested for COVID19. Every panchayat will be equipped with a quarantine centre for isolating the infected person from the family,” the government statement said.
Those persons who manifest a deteriorating health condition will be taken to the nearest health facility and will be provided with a medicines’ kit, it added.
Meanwhile, the state recorded 46 deaths and 2,151 new cases related to COVID19 on May 22.