BMC Fights COVID-19: Mega D2D Health Screening Begins in Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneswar: As part of steps to further strengthen its measures in fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has started mega door-to-door health screening programme in non-slum areas of the Capital City from today.

A two-member team consisting of an AYUSH doctor, female health worker or a teacher has started visiting each and every household under three zones of the Civic Body to collect information about any illness or flu-like symptoms or Covid-19 symptoms, travel history, information about elderly people and children.

As many as 42 teams are deployed in the North and South-West zones each and 55 teams are engaged in South-East zone of the Civic Body to carry out the massive health screening exercise.

One team has to cover at least 100 households in each zone every day and the health screening will continue for three weeks.

People surveying households wore basic safety gear such as masks, gloves and hand sanitizers etc. The teams have been given thermal gun to check temperatures and pulse oximeters to monitor a person’s oxygen saturation levels.

Apart from basic details like name, age, address and contact, teams are asking questions individuals about symptoms of cough, cold, fever or breathing problem and whether or not they use the Sachetak mobile App, and if they have symptoms of flu to detect COVID-19 during door-to-door survey.

“It’s a public welfare exercise, and we urge the citizens to be truthful while providing information to the surveyors. The aim is to identify people with Covid-like symptoms, create a comprehensive database and then get them tested to check its spread,” said ADUPHO (Additional District Urban Public Health Officer), Dr C.V.S.N. Rao.

If anyone has signs of the infection, they are asked to go to the nearest testing centre. This will help the administration to recognise cases of Covid-19 early on ensuring they reach the hospital on time or are isolated so that they do not spread the infection to others, Rao added.

On the first day of the mega exercise, the residents cooperated and provided all details. “Today, the response has been good as people are willing and cooperate with us when we visit their homes explaining about the initiative of BMC for public safety,” said Dr. Sanjay Kumar Mahapatra, an AYUSH doctor engaged in the survey.

The information collected at the end of the exercise will be compiled and an excel sheet is prepared each evening. The data can then be used to map out areas that are reporting more cases of Covid-like symptoms and help in further surveillance activities

The teams visiting houses are also encouraging people to come to testing centres and get the tests done to ensure safety of their families.