BHUBANESWAR: In Odisha’s Covid-19 story, Deogarh district has emerged an unlikely outlier despite being an early bird.
With the State’s lowest reported cases of 101, and only six active on date with zero death, the district surrounded by hotspots like Sambalpur and Sundargarh has managed to contain the spread of the virus in an admirable manner.
Deogarh reported its first case as early as April 29 when a driver tested positive at Basudevpur village.
On May 24, the district accounted for the largest share of 22 as the State marked its biggest spike of 103 on that day. At the end of the month, it ranked 15th among the 30 districts.
Yet, during the crucial period from June onwards when cases began to mount on the back of migrants returning from other states and community spread beginning to haunt various districts, Deogarh made a silent disappearance from the State’s Covid graph.
Case detection in the district has been sporadic since with positivity rate of less than two per cent while Odisha has been hovering around 10 per cent consistently for the last one month.
So, what did Deogarh do right in keeping the virus at bay? Being the smallest district in terms of population is not a clear explanation as bordering Sambalpur and Sundargarh, it is almost wholly dependent on the two biggest hotspots of western Odisha with people frequenting to the neighbours on a daily basis for their needs.
Behind the district faring fairly better than others in handling the pandemic and preventing the spread of the virus is a well-defined and rigid strategy for risk management.
The first case of the district was detected on April 29 as the return of migrant workers was beginning to unfold.
A driver, who had returned on account of lockdown, was tested within three days and all his contacts isolated instantly. This led to immediate containment in the area.
Then in May, when the temporary medical centres (TMCs) were set up to house migrant returnees in quarantine, a decision was taken to put them up in such facilities outside their own blocks.
“We had made a conscious decision to house returnees away from their native places in a bid to ensure their compliance to quarantine norms and also prevent any opportunity of mingling with family members or relatives. There was initial opposition but soon they understood and cooperated. This checked the possibility of cross-infection to a large extent,” Collector Sudhansu Mohan Samal said.
There was a single SOP for the district and it has stayed throughout unlike other districts where frequent changes have created confusion among the field workers, thus, leading to lapses. More than 3,600 migrant workers have returned to the district and only around 56 remain in the TMCs now.
“Further, though there was a provision for releasing inmates, who did not show any symptoms, for home isolation after seven days, we extended it to 10 days and the BDOs were allowed the discretion to increase it to 14 days based on their assessment”, Samal said.
At the community-level, the first big challenge came when a local political leader, a teacher and ASHA worker engaged in a TMC were tested positive on May 24. Stringent containment zone measures were imposed immediately along with case-based contact tracing, isolation and testing to successfully prevent any possibility of transmission.
A major advantage of the district has been a strongly oriented field-level workforce comprising ASHAs, Anganwadi workers and helpers to household monitoring and surveillance.
“The previous experience with malnutrition elimination exercise came in handy. The ASHAs and anganwadi workers have all information on each and every household. Any returnee to a household was known to them and strictly monitored. Most importantly, people have cooperated”, Samal explained.
Meanwhile, as the threat of community transmission has risen with the unlocking of restrictions, the district administration has stepped up surveillance and testing.
Eight teams, including three for Deogarh Municipality, will be engaged from Thursday to conduct random screening and testing of people in a bid to ensure early detection and pre-emption of the spread of the virus.
Plus, considering the increase in people’s movement to Sambalpur and Rourkela for their needs, border point screening has been intensified.
“All those coming in by buses and vehicles are being screened and enlisted for continuous monitoring at their homes. In case of any suspicion, they will be tested within 72 hours, Samal said.