Doctors work overtime to contain virus in Chimbel

PANAJI: As Tiswadi taluka witnesses a gradual surge in Covid-19 reports with more than 100 active cases, medical personnel are putting out all stops to battle the outbreak.
Doctors are working round the clock to contain the spread of Covid in Indiranagar, Chimbel to ensure that it doesn’t spiral into another Mangor Hill.
In Panaji too, the authorities – urban health centre and the Corporation of City of Panaji (CCP) are working to tackle the spread of coronavirus. Testing is being carried out after a spike in cases three days ago. CCP on Thursday sealed a building near the fish market as some persons tested positive on Wednesday.
Sources said that ten positives couldn’t be shifted to Covid care facilities on Wednesday as centres were full. Booth level officers (BLO) and the mamlatdar were told to monitor the positives who were shifted on Thursday.
A large Covid care centre at Shyama Prasad Mukherjee stadium is on the verge of completion. “It will cater to around 200 asymptomatic positives. Depending on the SOPs for asymptomatic patients to be kept at home, they will be admitted to the centre. Provisions for toilets are still underway,” a health official said. Currently, patients in Tiswadi are being transferred to Covid care centres even in Shiroda
There are 65 active cases in Indiranagar, Chimbel, where 45 have already recovered. Wards 4 and 11, where more than 40 cases have recovered, have an equal number of active positive cases. Unlike Mangor Hill, the active cases are restricted to only three wards with stray cases in two other wards
Besides aggressive contact tracing, testing and isolation, the Chimbel primary health centre is creating awareness, appealing to symptomatic people to get tested. “We are working hard, but we also urge people with fever and cough to get themselves checked. We want to detect symptoms in patients as early as possible. We can treat and isolate them early. We find out about some symptomatic patients only when they go to GMC,” said Dr Jude D’Souza, in-charge of the primary health centre in Chimbel.
BLOs and panch members have been roped in to help residents get consulted in the OPD at the government primary school Kirlawada, and then get tested in a systematic manner.
The health centre has designed posters in Hindi for the residents, asking them to immediately get in touch with their booth level officer (BLO) via text messages or calls, and provide their name, address and phone number for better coordination.
It is not only the nature of the denseness of the population that makes containing Covid difficult, the administration and police have also had a tough time dealing with law and order situations in the wards, two of which are being contained.
The Chimbel health centre’s jurisdiction extends to Taleigao, St Cruz, Merces and Curca. The doctors run the OPD at Chimbel on Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and at Casa do Povo, the old panchayat Taleigao on Monday and Friday.