Prayagraj: Over 4,000 Covid care cards given to seers, kalpwasis on Mela campus

PRAYAGRAJ: As many as 4,312 Covid Care Cards (CCC) have been distributed among seers, saints and kalpwasis camping on Magh Mela ground in a bid to help Mela health authorities track the status of their health.
Magh Mela, which began on January 14 will end on March 1.The health department aims to distribute around 30,000 cards during the mega religious event.
Nodal officer (Covid 19) and additional chief medical officer (ACMO) Dr. Rishi Sahai told TOI, “Each individual/organisation camping on the Mela ground will be allotted a CCC carrying all their required details, including name of the individual or the name of the organisation they represent, permanent address, temporary address, name of the head of the organisation, mobile number, date of arrival on the Magh Mela ground, status of Covid report of the past three days, pre-existing medical conditions and details of Covid testing.”
Dr. Sahai further said, “A Covid Care Card will be allotted to individuals and organisations who would be staying on the Magh Mela ground for around a month or more. Besides, surveillance teams would be conducting tests in all camps under separate phases between January 17 and February 16 .”
Dr. Sahai added, “A total of 51 health teams including eight each in sector one and two, 13 in sector three, 12 in sector 4 and 10 in sector five have been deployed to take better medical care of people staying in camps. Health teams have already distributed 738, 663, 639, 1361 and 940 cards among seers, saints and kalpwasis in sector one, two, three, four and five, respectively, till now.”
Moreover, health teams have also detected as many as 14, 23, 16, 34 and 33 people in sector one, two, three, four and five sectors respectively who have shown ILI (influenza like illness) symptoms or fever during checking.
Besides, health teams have also conducted 1,376 antigen and 1,251 RTPCR tests on Mela campus till January 16 and seven of them had been tested positive for Covid-19 including two and five persons through antigen and RT PCR methods, respectively.
Dr.Sahai claimed that as many as 3,443 people have also been given vaccines on the mela campus.
“Apart from deploying thermal scanning teams at 15 entry points of the venue, an adequate number of health surveillance teams have also been deployed in all five sectors. Plus, 20 mobile testing vans would also be roped in for testing,” Sahai said.
Moreover, devotees’ camps would be sanitized at regular intervals and health department officials would be interacting with seers, kalpwasis and other officials on duty at frequent intervals to inquire about their health.
A database of all devotees staying in the Magh Mela area will be prepared and mobile teams will update their records once a week.
Mela police have appealed to senior citizens, elderly seers and people with co-morbidities to not visit the Magh Mela venue.