Amid the uncertain times of the pandemic that continues to instil a sense of anxiety and fear among people, stories of frontline administrators who have battled and recovered from COVID continue to raise a flicker of hope.

District Collector and Incident Commander I. Samuel Ananda Kumar has led from the front till the second week of July when he, along with his family, tested positive. After 14 days of home isolation, Mr. Samuel Ananda Kumar resumed work on Saturday and shared his experience on combating the virus.

‘Not life-threatening’

“COVID-19 is not a life-threatening disease that it is made out to be. By following a few simple precautions, we can overcome the disease. My family and I have only followed the protocol of isolating ourselves, regularly checking temperature and oxygen levels and doing simple breathing exercises,” said the Collector at a media conference held here on Saturday afternoon.

Medical kits

The Collector also launched a medical kit which contains vitamin C, vitamin D, zinc sulphide, MVT, santistiser and disposable masks. For those with symptoms, another kit consisting of tablets- Azithromycin, Paracetamol, Citrizen, Pantrozol, and CPM syrup is recommended.

He said that the district has till now registered 17,600 cases but a 85-90% of them had not showed any symptoms. But even then, it is recommended that those with temperature above 100 degrees celsius and sugar levels above 200 and oxygen levels below 90 are advised treatment.

“We are witnessing a spike in cases, but we have also intensified testing. On Friday, we tested 7,817 samples out of which 1,001 samples tested positive. We are conducting screening at triage centres and advising home isolation to asymptomatic cases, while referring those with symptoms and with comorbid conditions to hospitals,” said the Collector.

He also said that there is an urgent need to dispel many myths around the disease, including unnecessary apprehensions over burial of bodies, and added that the district administration would launch a massive campaign in the coming week to sensitise people to put an end to destigmatisation and to raise awareness over the protocol to be followed during home isolation.