Delhi: Street plays drive home safety message

NEW DELHI: Amid apprehensions of a post-festival surge in Covid-19 cases, districts are taking several initiatives to ensure that people remain alert. Most of the districts are organising street corner plays where artists enact plays based on short stories to effectively communicate Covid-19 guidelines and the need to strictly follow them. Awareness campaigns are going on in full swing at sensitive locations like markets and other places that may witness overcrowding.
The expert committee headed by Dr VK Paul of NITI Aayog has advised Delhi government that it should prepare for up to 15,000 daily cases because winter months and festival-related gatherings may lead to sudden rise in cases.During winter, respiratory illnesses become severe because of which Covid-19 infected persons may find the pandemic more threatening.
North West district is organising panchayats in a bid to take the awareness campaigns to micro level. “Three panchayat meetings are organised every week by district administration officials to discuss Covid-19. The agenda is Covid-19, winter and festivals. The panchayat is organised with strict social distancing norms,” said district magistrate (North West) Sandeep Mishra.
The DM has also attended a couple of panchayat meetings recently and found that people in villages are quite aware about the Covid-19 guidelines. “We urge the people to take care of senior citizens and those with comorbidities, ask them to avoid festive rush in the market, never get out of their homes without masks and maintain social distancing,” said Mishra.
Every day, over 100 awareness vehicles fan out to different locations across the city teaching people dos and don’ts. Loudspeakers are mounted on the vehicles, which go to marketplaces, weekly markets, residential areas, parks and other places prone to gatherings of people. “We have roped in residents’ welfare associations. Posters of dos and don’ts have been put up in RWA-governed residential complexes and the associations are being encouraged to pass on the information to the residents through digital mediums or through meetings organised with social distancing,” said a South district official. Market associations are also being roped in.
South West district administration organised a bike rally for awareness on Sunday in which 40 bikes with stickers on Covid-19 awareness content covered a long distance. They asked people to not become complacent until the vaccine for Covid-19 was out. “The entire awareness campaign is based on a few principles – wearing masks, two yards distance, washing hands frequently,” said an official. DM (South West) Naveen Agrawal also participated in the rally.
“The pandemic is not yet over. In such a situation, taking precautions becomes important. The festival season has also begun due to which crowd in the market is growing and is likely to grow further. Every citizen will have to become aware and encourage others to take all precautions,” said DM (East) Arun Kumar Mishra.