Bengaluru to adopt ‘Dharavi’ example to control Covid spread
Home surveys to start at earliest: Sudhakar
Booth-level staff will identify suspect cases, call ambulances
BENGALURU:
In a video conference with Covid in-charge officers for Bengaluru’s 8 zones on Wednesday, Medical Education Minister Dr.K.Sudhakar, while calling for better coordination, urged the zonal in-charges to follow the ‘Dharavi’ (Mumbai) model. Asia’s largest slum, Dharavi has seen the coronavirus controlled to a large extent with intensive testing and tracing.
The minister insisted that booth-level task force committees be fully functional before the current lockdown ends. Committee formation and training of members should be completed in one or two days, and home surveys should start as soon as possible.
The committees should identify ILI and SARI cases and refer them to hospitals, Covid Care Centres or home isolation based on the severity of each case. Guidelines on classifying these cases should be conveyed to members during training. Committee members should be equipped with pulse oximeters and thermal scanners and should coordinate with ambulances where needed. They should track primary and secondary contacts of infected persons.
Zonal in-charge officers have to supervise the booth-level team on a daily basis. They also have to take care of labs and testing procedures in their respective zones. No samples should be kept pending for a week. Senior officer Shalini Rajneesh would coordinate in these matters, the minister said.
Infected persons from slums and other places where home isolation is not possible should be quarantined in government Covid Care Centres, Dr Sudhakar said.
The BBMP Commissioner is to coordinate on ambulances and the Medical Education Director is tasked with providing medical and paramedical staff.
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