Nalgonda district in Telangana has ramped up COVID-19 monitoring, following the recent surge of cases. With the district recording a total of 1500 cases, the fear of community transmission is lurking, forcing the district officials to take up ‘rapid fever survey’ in all the 31 mandals. According to the DMHO, out of the total COVID-19 cases, 900 of them are active.
These 31 mandals have over 800 villages. As per the plan, the rapid response teams — Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) workers, Auxiliary Nursing Midwife and medical staff — will check for the symptoms of COVID-19 in each resident, according to Nalgonda District Medical and Health Officer (DMHO), Kondal Rao.
“The rapid response teams will conduct door-to-door surveys in each village, and they will be coordinating with the Primary Health Care centre. The PHCs, in turn, will communicate the health status of the residents to the district-level authorities,” Kondal Rao said.
The DMHO said that the survey would help the health staff in the early detection of coronavirus cases, and reduce fatalities related to the virus.
Earlier this week, Health Minister Eatala Rajender also made an appeal in this regard, and advised Primary Health Care centres against providing any treatment to a person who exhibited symptoms of fever or cold, unless they underwent a COVID-19 test. Fever, cold, sore throat, diarrhea, and loss of smell are few symptoms of COVID-19.
The Health Minister on Wednesday held a video conference with the District Collectors and district health officials, asking them to work in a robust manner to contain the spread of the disease.
While 323 antigen testing centres have been established across Telangana, Nalgonda has five of them — Nalgonda district hospital, Nagarjunasagar Area hospital, Miryalaguda Area hospital, Deverkonda and Nakkrekal community health centre.
Meanwhile, the Nalgonda town is under voluntary lockdown until August 14. The self-imposed lockdown was decided by the traders and local politicians, seeking approval from the district authorities. As per the lockdown measures, the grocery stores will be available only until 1 pm. In the neighbouring town of Miryalaguda, although the self-imposed lockdown was lifted on July 31, the shops remain mostly closed due to the fear of coronavirus.
In a worrying situation, all the 35 oxygen beds in Nalgonda District Government Hospital have been occupied, and out of the 25 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds, 17 of them are occupied.
As per the Medical bulletin, in the last week, the district recorded 263 coronavirus cases.