Bihar plans mega screening for Covid-19

During the exercise, people found with Covid-19 symptoms would be identified and their samples would be taken for further confirmatory tests.

In a first, Bihar will launch from Thursday a mammoth eight-day active screening, covering all households in the four endemic districts of Siwan, Begusarai, Nawada and Nalanda, in its efforts to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) to newer areas.

A police personnel hits a person out breaking restrictions at Danapur during lockdown against coronavirus in Patna, Bihar, India on Tuesday April 14, 2020. (Santosh Kumar / Hindustan Times)

These districts account for over 65% of the 66 cases of the virus in the state till Tuesday, after two cases were reported in the past 24 hours.

It will also launch door-to-door screening in nearly 8,000 villages, having any person with international travel history last month. The robust screening in villages would cover nearly 17% of the total households in the state, said officials.

During the exercise, people found with Covid-19 symptoms would be identified and their samples would be taken for further confirmatory tests.

“We believe that those who returned from foreign countries are a potential source of spreading the virus. As such, we have decided to screen every house in the village, having an international traveller who returned in March, to check any missing case in the community that may have escaped detection,” said Deepak Kumar, Bihar’s chief secretary.

The state government would also launch an intensive door-to-door screening within three kilometre radius of the dwelling having an infected person, said health officials.

“The state government also decided to tap retail drug stores, formal and informal service providers, including MBBS doctors, Ayurveda, Unani and homeopathy practitioners and quacks to collate data on people with influenza like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory illness (SARI) who had consulted them,” said Sanjay Kumar, Bihar’s principal secretary, health.

Baring the state government’s plans to check the spread of the virus, Kumar said the door-to-door screening in the affected districts and villages would be akin to the pulse polio drive.

“We will deploy 50,000 teams, each comprising two members, to visit every household in the affected districts and villages. The survey team will carry a questionnaire and ask people about their travel history and screen people for symptoms of the virus like dry cough, fever or breathlessness, with special emphasis on households having senior citizens above 60 years of age,” said Kumar.

The team would re-visit every household after five days to check for Covid-19 symptoms, he said.

While screening households in the four districts, the government had also decided to screen dwelling in blocks, which were in adjacent districts. Say for example, while undertaking the exercise in Siwan, the authorities would also screen households in blocks of adjoining districts like Gopalganj and Saran. Similarly, while undertaking the screening drive in Begusarai, the authorities would also screen households in adjoining blocks under Samastipur and Khagaria districts, he added.

“We hope to establish infection trail in every case during the entire exercise, which will be completed by April 24,” signed off Kumar.