Fighting Covid with a responsive support system  

SAMBALPUR: Responsive control rooms, active surveillance by frontline health workers, risk communication through strong community engagement and psycho-social redressal of positive cases have paid off for Sambalpur administration in its fight against Covid-19.

On May 17, the district reported its first Covid case and the tally now stands at 4,730 but it has registered an impressive recovery rate of 76 percent. Importantly, its fatality is low at 21, well below the State rate.
According to Collector Subham Saxena, the district has been able to control the spread of the virus through a combination of measures. 

“The Covid hospital here has now been standardised with adequate number of paramedic staff as well as specialist doctors. Earlier, people would insist on getting  referred to Covid facilities in Bhubaneswar or places other than Sambalpur but now most of them are willing to get treated here which is an indication that our treatment is living up to the high expectations of our people,” he said.

The district administration has activated three call centres, including one at SMC office to monitor patients under home isolation, another at the health department to inform patients about testing status and the third one is at District Covid Call Centre at the Collector’s office. 

The number of calls from people has significantly reduced in last two weeks. “Awareness among people has increased and on the other hand, panic has decreased as we have achieved a high recovery rate. People have also become more cooperative which has helped us battle the crisis efficiently so far,” he said. The district administration collaborated with FICCI FLO Bhubaneswar Chapter and Humara Bachpan Trust (HBT) for psychosocial care of the patients at hospitals as well as in home isolation. 

As many as 3,323 Covid patients have undergone counselling by certified counsellors during treatment and post-recovery as part of the psychosocial intervention.  Alongside, counselling of frontline workers was also carried out with an objective to protect and promote mental well-being and resilience of frontline workers as well as provide psycho-social support to Covid warriors.

Using a standardised internationally adopted assessment tool, the frontline workers’ mental condition is assessed. In the first phase, psychosocial assessment of 84 CHC staff members of Sambalpur district was done and based on their response, counselling support was provided. “Social discrimination, co-morbidities, issues related to livelihoods, change in routines and lifestyle were some of the issues which came up during counselling. The psychosocial counselling has given us very good results. It has helped us identify problems and address it accordingly,” Saxena said.