Health dept increases focus on rural pockets

With cases increasing in rural areas, the district administration has deployed 138 health teams to focus on testing, contact tracing and treatment

With cases increasing in rural areas, the district administration has deployed 138 health teams to focus on testing, contact tracing and treatment. The district administration started intensive monitoring of rural areas from Saturday, said officials.

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Dr Jai Prakash Sharma, Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme’s district surveillance officer in Gurugram, said, “As cases are increasing in rural areas also, we are monitoring the situation closely. A total of 138 teams have been constituted for monitoring rural areas in the district. These teams will be focusing on areas falling under seven primary health centres. The teams would visit all the houses and conduct rapid antigen tests of symptomatic patients and also focus on contact tracing.”

The rural areas covered by the teams include; Bhondsi, Badashahpur, Palra, Kasan, Bhangrola, Bhora Kalan and Farrukhnagar.

The Haryana government on Saturday announced that around 8,000 multidisciplinary teams would be deputed to launch a door-to-door Covid-19 screening drive in rural areas, amid reports of low testing and underreporting of the infections. The teams, led by trainee doctors and health department officials, will have ASHA and anganwadi workers and each team will cover approximately 500 households.

In the past two days, the district health department conducted over 1,660 tests with over 25 people testing positive.

“We were already conducting tests in rural areas, but with cases rapidly increasing in urban areas, cases are increasing in rural areas also due to movement of locals. Now, even if a person tests negative in a rapid test, the teams will constantly monitor their health, and take samples for RT-PCR testing after a gap of three to four days,” said Sharma.

Last week, health department officials had said that Covid-19 cases are controlled in rural areas when compared to urban areas of the district because of lower population density. Residents, however, said that cases are increasing in rural areas, with almost no facilities available.

“Locals in villages do not even have access to basic medicines like paracetamol, at times. They are relying on immunity boosting drinks (kadha). It is also not possible to practice home isolation in rural areas as large families live together, due to which most family members end up testing positive,” said a resident of Sohna, requesting anonymity.

Gurugram on Sunday reported 2,842 new Covid-19 cases, taking the tally of active cases to 37,423. On Sunday, deaths of 10 positive patients were also reported from the district. With this, a total of 587 Covid-19 positive patients have died in the district so far. The recovery rate in the district stands at 75.71%, while the fatality rate is 0.38%.