Door-to-door survey to trace virus-affected

Hrusikesh Mohanty | TNN | Apr 9, 2020, 04:24 IST

Berhampur: Officials of the Ganjam district administration on Wednesday decided to launch a door-to-door survey to trace people with symptoms of coronavirus. This initiative is akin to a model of Bhilwara in Rajasthan, which has successfully managed to contain the spread of the life-threatening virus.
“We will begin the process of checking up people’s health on Thursday and aim to complete it by next Saturday,” district collector Vijay Amruta Kulange said. He added that the anganwardi workers, helpers and primary schoolteachers will go from door-to-door to do the health check-up of about 40 lakh people. They will make a note of answers related to their travel history, health status and symptoms of influenza-like illness.
Kulange said since the questionnaires are easy to comprehend, there is no need to train the survey team in handling them. “We will educate them over phone before they start the survey. The district will use the survey responses to decide who needs to be tested for the novel coronavirus infection. The survey will also help us know the status of those who are under home quarantine,” he added.
Not a single person has tested positive for coronavirus in Ganjam district so far. The health administration has sent the samples of 267 suspected persons for tests. Sources said the 105 samples, whose reports have come, have tested negative. “We are waiting for the test reports of the other samples,” Uma Shankar Mishra, the chief district medical officer, said.
The district administration on Wednesday withdrew the ‘hot spot for Covid-19’ tag from Matia Sahi under Kukudakhandi block. “After medical screening of the 130 persons, who had returned from the hot spot Covid-19 areas of Bhubaneswar, nobody showed any symptoms of coronavirus,” Shinde Dattatraya Bhausaheb, the subcollector of Berhampur, said.