The Puducherry administration will use socio-economic profiling data from the District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) to target vulnerable sections for COVID-19 prevention efforts.
Lt. Governor Kiran Bedi, who took a COVID-19 status briefing from Relief and Rehabilitation Commissioner A. Anbarasu and Health Secretary T. Arun, said the DRDA had carried out extensive social mapping of vulnerable groups in rural villages. An exhaustive document mapping vulnerable households of each village is available under the DRDA’s Puducherry State Rural Livelihood Mission, and this could be an invaluable resource for driving prevention programmes.
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The survey provides block-level data points, such as households with elderly members (aged above 65) or the number of households with daily wage earners and migrants, to indicate COVID-19 vulnerable households.
“A similar mapping will be replicated in urban areas by the Local Administration Department for a close watch on the mapped vulnerable households to contain the spread of COVID-19,” Ms. Bedi said.
“The document was already available, but it was hibernating. Now, it is already in implementation in rural areas,” she said.
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Based on vulnerability mapping and the training given to SHGs, the surveillance standard operating procedure (SOP) would be fine-tuned, in consultation with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), for field-level monitoring. The SOP would be shared with doctors, outlying regions and other stakeholders, the Lt. Governor said.
In coordination with the police, the resident welfare associations would be co-opted for surveillance by auxiliary nurse-midwives and Accredited Social Health Activists. They should carry oximeters and thermal scanners for identifying symptomatic patients.
On the reduction of fatalities, officials of the Joint Enforcement Team and field officials would be made aware of the penal provisions for home quarantine violations and the provisions of the orders issued under the Disaster Management Act and the Epidemic Diseases Act for symptomatic persons to go for early treatment and seeking cooperation of the public to respond to field-level functionaries.
The Director-General of Police would shortly frame the SOP for the team.
The government recently notified a fine of ₹1,000 for violating isolation norms and ₹500 for violating quarantine norms.
Protocol to be in place
A protocol for clinical interventions to reduce the death rate, based on the ICMR’s recommendation, would be put in place.
It was also decided at the meeting to frame a plan to rationalise ambulance timings to commute patients to screening centres and hospitals in order to minimise the time for a patient to get admitted for treatment.
In Mahe, it was decided to ramp up testing capacity to over 300 samples a day. The bed strength would be increased from 270 to a minimum of 1,000. The Ayurveda College would be converted into a Covid Care Centre as soon as the ongoing examinations were completed.
Since the General Hospital was handling COVID-19 cases, the PHC would be converted into a non-COVID hospital.