Residents of various apartments and gated communities have been coming together to help one another in tough times during this COVID-19 pandemic.
Apart from taking precautionary measures at the apartment premises, residents are lending a helping hand to their neighbours affected by novel coronavirus by providing essentials and giving much required mental support.
Many apartments have been maintaining strict rule of sanitisation of visitors during the entry. Apart from having logbook, apartments and gated communities are also taking thermometer readings.
Checkpoint arranged
After increase in the number of cases, residents of Dayal Nagar (near Kailasagiri) have approached GVMC officials as well as police and took permission to arrange a checkpoint at the entry of their colony.
They also arranged barricades at all the entry/exit points. The residents themselves turned themselves as volunteers to man the checkpoint six hours per shift, round the clock
“There are about 250 families living in here and many of them are elderly persons. So we wanted to make sure everyone is safe. We take temperature readings and note down the details of the visitors at the checkpoint. On Friday, we conducted tests to 40 elderly persons and all of them have resulted negative,” said Shanti Swaroop, a resident of Dayal Nagar.
Like Dayal Nagar, since March, residents of Lansum Greens Gated community at Madhavadhara started to take precautions. On July 28, first case was reported and the tally is now 11. However, without panicking, the residents have been providing all help to the affected patients.
“We residents have decided to take the responsibility to provide nutritious food and essential commodities to the patients till they recover. We are trying to instil confidence in them,” said S Krishna Murthy, secretary of Lansum Greens Gated Community Association, Madhavadhara.
Online discussions
Mr. Murthy said that in their gated community, they have a club house where there is adequate space. They are ready to allot it for isolation ward for the treatment of critical patients (gated community residents), if the government comes forward, he added.
AP Federation of Resident Welfare Association (APFERWA) vice-president K.S.R. Murthy said that since March, the RWAs have been sharing all information and conducting discussions online regarding the COVID-19, dos and dont’s, and sanitisation for visitors during the pandemic as safety measure.
“All the RWAs are in contact with the civic body and sanitising their areas time to time. Apart from sharing knowledge, the RWAs have come together to help the affected residents,” he said.