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2000 medical students sign up for ‘Covid Warriors’ duty in Andhra Pradesh
In order to meet this contingency, the government has come up with the concept of Covid Warriors, a large contingent of student volunteers from various medical colleges.
The Andhra Pradesh government has come up with a unique idea of creating a contingent of “Covid Warriors” comprising student and apprentices belonging to various medical colleges to meet the demand of medical professions in the event of outbreak of Covid-19 on a larger scale.
According to senior IAS officer M Girija Shankar, special officer for Covid-19 in Andhra Pradesh, the state would require large number of medical professionals – doctors and paramedical staff, if the number of Covid-19 cases go up in the coming days.
In order to meet this contingency, the government has come up with the concept of Covid Warriors, a large contingent of student volunteers from various medical colleges. “We have called for enrolment of students belonging to 271 medical colleges, dental colleges, Ayurvedic and Unani medical colleges in both government and private sectors, besides other allied institutions related to medicine, as Covid Warriors,” Girija Shankar said.
Not only students, even private medical practitioners, specialists, people who had done nursing courses and other paramedical staff, can also register themselves as Covid Warriors.
“While experienced among the volunteers could extend their services in hospitals, the services of students could be utilised in quarantine centres, which we named as Covid Care Centres. They are being given sufficient training as to how to handle Covid-19 patients and how to extend service needed to the patients,” the official said.
While experienced private medical professionals and paramedical staff enrolled as Covid Warriors would be given remuneration based on their service utilised in the hospitals, others who would be working as volunteers in quarantine centres would not be paid any money.
“We shall take care of their logistic expenses, including food and transport. We shall provide them necessary PPE kits. However, the service extended by these student volunteers would be given due credits in future recruitments in hospitals and other government jobs,” Girija Shankar said.
Dr Kattimani Vivekanand, a senior faculty of NTR University of Health Sciences, Vijayawada, who is in-charge of this Covid Warrior scheme, said the scheme was brought in to meet the shortage of medical professionals in handling Covid-19 in the event of largescale outbreak of the positive cases.
“India doesn’t have sufficient number of medical professionals in tune with the WHO norms - a minimum of one doctor and 1.5 nurses per every 1,000 patients. In case of alarming situations like Covid-19, we need more medical professionals. This Covid Warriors scheme is an attempt to overcome the shortage at least to some extent,” Vivekanand said.
So far, more than 2,000 student volunteers and experienced private doctors registered themselves as Covid Warriors. The official, however, refused to share the details of the volunteers registered, as they were yet to be given training.
