42 mobile clinics to be stationed

As a measure to contain the spread of COVID-19 pandemic, 42 mobile fever clinics were flagged off by Revenue Minister R.B. Udhayakumar and Cooperation Minister Sellur K. Raju here on Thursday.

Monitoring Officer B. Chandra Mohan said that the main aim of the fever clinics was to identify people with symptoms like fever, cold or cough and within 24 hours isolate them and evaluate them for treatment. “The whole idea is to pick up fever cases early to avoid the spread of COVID-19,” he said.

These mobile clinics were in addition to the 31 fever clinics set up at Urban Primary Health Centres (UPHCs) in the city. A corporation health official said that a team of workers would undertake door-to-door surveillance to identify fever cases and those with fever will be taken to the fever clinic. “Based on the severity of symptoms, people will be sent for treatment to COVID-19 care centres, health centres or hospitals,” the official said.

Each mobile clinic would have a doctor, nurse and disinfectant teams, said Collector T.G. Vinay. “Based on a schedule, the mobile clinics will be deployed in densely-populated areas, COVID-19 clusters and they will be additional to the fever clinics at Urban Primary Health Centres,” he said.

A source from Government Rajaji Hospital said that a large number of COVID-19 positive patients included people who had influenza-like-illness (ILI ). “Hence, detecting fever through the camps during the intensified lockdown period will be helpful to curb the spread of cases,” he said.