Gujarat: Health secy visits Mahisagar amid spurt in Covid-19 cases

During her visit to the district, Ravi visited a containment zone — Dugri patta in Lunawada — and the Balasinor Covid-19 hospital to examine the facilities available and met senior citizens who fall under the high risk category of contracting the virus. She also met health and administrative officers and reviewed the works related to containment of Covid-19 taken so far.

As a major take away from her visit to the district, the administration will now emphasize on reverse quarantining which suggests home quarantine for all the vulnerable groups including senior citizens and children below the age of 10.

“Quite a few suggestions were made during the visit to further strengthen our planning to contain the spread of the virus. The major emphasis was on the vulnerable groups and also people with influenza like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infections (SARI). We will enhance our surveillance to detect SARI and ILI patients at an early stage,” said RB Barad, Collector Mahisagar.

Interacting with media persons, Ravi appreciated the efforts by the district administration to tackle the situation and action plans been drawn for the same. “Even if the number of cases see an increase in the district, the administration is very well prepared to handle the situation. They have formulated village-wise plan by roping in sarpanches, talatis, to work at village level and a surveillance team to look into people returning to the district from other places,” she said.

She also interacted with a lab technician from the Balasinor Covid-19 hospital, over the phone who had tested positive for Covid-19 and is now under home quarantine after discharge from the hospital.

As many as 38 officials have also been appointed for each Primary Health Centre (PHC) to coordinate at village level regarding distribution of ukala and homeopathy medicines, detecting SARI and ILI cases, effective surveillance of the vulnerable groups and also in assisting the people to download the Arogya Setu app.