An ongoing door-to-door Covid19 health audit being conducted across Jammu and Kashmir by the government has revealed that on an average 20 to 30 out of every 600 households are showing “symptomatic data”.
As per officials, every team deputed for the survey invarious cities and towns of J&K has been covering at least 50 to 60households across 15 districts on a daily basis.
“Almost 250 medical officers have been appointed for thisexercise in each district. Each doctor receives data of 500-600 households fromthe field teams at the end of the day out of which 20-30 on an average areshowing symptomatic data,” said Dheeraj Gupta, Principal Secretary, Housing andUrban Development Department, who is also looking after the survey as the nodalofficer of smart city project.
Gupta said from the collected household data, the designatedmedical officers select houses where they feel the need of making a personalvisit. “Based on their field visit andclinical examinations of the persons showing some sort of symptoms, the medicalofficers decide about the need for sampling and testing of the Covid-19suspect,” the official said.
“The survey so far has covered 3 lakh households involving15 lakh individuals across the Union Territory,” the official said.
He said the survey is being conducted in not just Covid-19hotspots but across Jammu and Kashmir in the fight against coronavirus. “Theearly detection and early healthcare helps in a better recovery rate. Thissurvey is being conducted to ensure that people showing symptoms related toCovid-19 are traced. We urge people to honestly respond to the surveyors whocome to their doorsteps,” Gupta said.
Officials said the extensive Covid-19 health audit, whichwas announced earlier this month for capital cities Srinagar and Jammu, has nowbeen launched in 15 out of 20 districts of J&K.
“In Jammu 1400 field teams have been constituted comprisingof block level officers, Aasha and Anganwandi workers to conduct the survey.
“In Srinagar, 960 such teams have been formed for conductingthe health audit.
“These teams have been visiting from house-to-house and withhelp of a specially designed mobile app capturing data. Usually these groundlevel workers are locals of the area known to the population. They share acomfort level with people in the areas which is why people being surveyed havebeen coming forward about their symptoms if any,” an official said.
He said use of the mobile app is proving to be helpful forthis survey as “it ensures that a field team has actually visited a particularhousehold,”.
“As soon a field team downloads the mobile app in aparticular household, it does geo-tagging of that location. This updates thehealth status of a household on a real time basis on Geographic InformationSystem (GIS) and shows other specifications such as symptoms etc,” the officialsaid.