THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: “I haven’t gone home or met my family in the past two months,” says a junior health inspector (JHI) of the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation who is on Covid-19 duty. “We all are working day and night to keep the situation under control. But it gets tough with each passing day as our responsibilities are multiplying,” adds the JHI, who is one among the nearly 150 health workers under the civic body fighting the deadly virus raging across the state.

With more tasks being added to their routine as the monsoon approaches, the health staff are working without a break. Pre-monsoon sanitation drive, disinfecting drives, source reduction activities, fogging, waste management, epidemic control, house visit programmes, management of quarantine centres and community kitchens are among the many responsibilities burdening them. “I haven’t been able take a leave after joining the Attukal Pongala duty. Soon after the festival, the Covid-19 outbreak happened,” says another health official. 

Hundreds of health workers under the city corporation including health inspectors, junior health inspectors and contingent workers have been working 24x7 since the pandemic outbreak. To ease their workload, the corporation has decided to rope in volunteers for executing various responsibilities relating to pre-monsoon sanitation drive. Health Standing Committee chairman I P Binu said that the health staff and the contingent workers have been operating on the frontline for the past several weeks. He said swab samples of all health staff have been collected for the Covid-19 test and they have been provided with personal protection equipment.

“Our staff have been working on the frontline just like any other medical staff working at the  hospitals treating Covid positive patients. We are taking care of hundreds of suspected patients in quarantine centres. They are being served food and provided with essential supplies by our contingent workers and health staff. Many of them are asymptomatic and have not tested, hence our workers are more at risk. However, we have decided to bring in some changes. A minimum of five to six contingent workers under the supervision of health inspector or JHI would be deployed at each quarantine centre. Only one worker would be assigned on each floor of the centre,” said Binu. 

He said that `1.3 lakh has been granted to each ward for carrying out pre-monsoon sanitation drives. “We have asked ward-level sanitation committees to hire 10 to 20  volunteers for executing the sanitation drives on a war footing. We cannot deploy contingent workers who have been on Covid-19 duty for pre-monsoon drive. A sum of `630 would be given per day to the volunteers. So far, around 450 drains and three canals have been cleaned since the launch of the drive,” said Binu. 

With the Centre giving a nod to resume domestic flights and train services, more people are expected to arrive in Thiruvananthapuram in the coming days. However, according to health workers, the district administration has not been informing them on passengers arriving in Thiruvananthapuram in advance.