Bhubaneswar: As the COVID-19 pandemic has posed a challenge and turned out to be traumatic for persons with disabilities (PwDs), the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Monday organized a special testing camp at Odisha capital for these ‘special people’ as part of its disability-inclusive response to the crisis.
The testing camp was organized at Gopabandhu Leprosy Colony in Budhanagar slum area of the capital city. More than 72 differently-abled people turned up to undergo the Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests. Among the people tested there were elderly persons, people with disability and leprosy affected.
The health camp started at 10 AM and lasted till 1 AM.
“The objective behind the camp is to strengthen outreach of COVID-19 testing and are making healthcare services accessible for persons with disabilities (PwD). The current crisis demands that people with disabilities must be treated as vulnerable groups and special provisions included for them at every stage of the public health crisis,” said Anshuman Rath, Zonal Deputy Commissioner (South East) of BMC.
The BMC is ready with an emergency response plan by including the needs of people with disability and is trying to reach out to more number of differently-abled with arranging such special test camps in the coming days, Rath added.
The SE Zone ZDC looked after every arrangement to organize this camp.
Previously, BMC had provided ration to the differently-abled persons who were in quarantine at Keshari Nagar as well as cooked food for the visually challenged at Odisha Association for the Blind during their isolation period.
At present, the BMC is conducting three types of tests i.e. RT-PCR), Antigen and TrueNaat at various centres across the city. The Civic Body has started rapid antigen testing of local citizens at nine local urban health centres – six Urban Primary Health Centres (UPHCs) and three Urban Community Health Centres (UCHCs) to encourage people to step forward in large numbers for Covid-19 testing.