No field survey work for teachers over 55 years in Pune

Sarang Dastane | TNN | Updated: May 6, 2020, 10:41 IST

A resident of Bhavani Peth undergoes thermal scanning by a Pune Municipal Corporation staffer on Tuesday

PUNE: The civic administration has decided to exempt the teachers aged above 55 years from door-to-door survey duties in the Covid-19 affected areas. An order was issued recently in this regard.
The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has prepared a list of over 200 teachers aged above 55 years who will now be allotted administrative work instead of being sent to the field.

The civic authorities said the administration will replace these teachers with other staffers and those below 55 years of age.
Officials said the step was being taken as a precautionary measure. Among those who have been relieved from the field visit duties include the assistant teachers and teachers attached to the primary schools.
The PMC has deputed civic school teachers to conduct a door-to-door survey across 15 civic wards in a bid to identify suspected patients for Covid-19 infection. The teams visit every house falling within the wards and survey the citizens for flu-like symptoms as per the containment plan. The symptomatic patients are referred to the nearest health clinics for further check-up.
“Relieving around 200 teachers from survey duties will not hamper our work in any way. We have started deputing replacements. We will utilize the teachers over 55 years of age for other administrative work,” a senior civic health department official said.
The PMC has completed the first round of survey in the entire city. The administration is now gearing up for the second round of repeated surveys in areas where the Covid-19 positive cases have appeared in large numbers over the past few days. As many as 1,007 teams have been on deputed on the field in this regard. Over 20.54 lakh houses have been visited so far, covering a population of nearly 71 lakh.