Rural health workers to be roped in to help out with Covid-19 measures

Amid the rising incidence of Covid-19 cases in the city, the district health department has decided to rope in rural health teams for managing contact tracing and

Amid the rising incidence of Covid-19 cases in the city, the district health department has decided to rope in rural health teams for managing contact tracing and taking care of home-isolated patients in urban clusters, said health department officials. With a record spike in new infections in the last two weeks, health workers in the urban primary health care centres (UPHCs) across the city are working under tremendous pressure.

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“The department is coping with the current situation with the available resources. Since the trajectory of the new infections is likely go upwards till the end of the festival season, we might increase the strength of the health teams in the urban areas. Rapid Response Teams (RRTs) from rural areas will be shifted to urban areas to execute tests, manage contact tracing and take care of home-isolated patients,” said Dr Virender Yadav, chief medical officer.

In Gurugram, since November 1, 605 new infections on an average have been reported every day, which are more than double the numbers recorded in the previous months. To handle the surge in cases, the health department has deployed 143 RRTs in urban areas and 163 in rural areas. Each RRT consists of an auxiliary nurse midwife (ANMs), an accredited social health activists (ASHA) worker, and an Anganwadi worker.

In urban areas, these RRTs have to conduct contact tracing and keep a tab on home-isolated patients, who form more than 93% of the total active cases. Of the 5,343 active cases, at least 4,994 are currently under home isolation and 339 are hospitalised. Besides RRTs, 22 teams which includes a doctor each, have also been formed to visit patients based on the calls made to them every alternate day by ANMs.

According to Dr Hardeep Kaur Saluja, medical officer, Tigra UPHC, it is in the last 10 days, the work load has drastically increased. The per day positive cases in her area has increased to over 160 now, compared to just 50 cases in previous months. “The RRTs are working even after the end of the shifts. They have to make calls to home-isolated patients late in the evenings to ensure serious cases are not missed out,” she said.

According to her, every ANM has to now make more than 30 calls a day. Likewise, Dr Neelam Sharma, medical officer of Firoze Gandhi Colony said that her team makes 40 calls a day to enquire about the health condition of the patient. “Besides making calls, they have to go for home visits of these patients — the number of which have increased from 20 visits a day to 40 visits,” said Sharma, adding that the teams then have to fill in online details of the visit.

“Number of patients to be tracked in a day has more than doubled in the last two weeks, thereby increasing our work pressure,” she said.

Likewise, ASHAs have to cover more high-risk cases under contact tracing. “From nearly 20 visits a day, our ASHAs are now covering over 50 homes a day for contact tracing. It is more than double of what we used to do earlier,” said Meera Devi, an ASHA worker, also district president of the ASHA workers union in Gurugram.

Another medical officer, who preferred not to be named said that apart from Covid-19, routine health activities have to be conducted too. “It includes immunisations and anti-natal checkups, which cannot be missed due to Covid-19. The health team is under extreme pressure since the pandemic outbreak.”

Meanwhile the city reported 697 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the tally of Covid-19 cases to 35,439. Three new deaths were reported, taking the toll to 230 cases.