The Kallakurichi District administration has intensified door-to-door active surveillance in urban local bodies and village panchayats and stepped up enforcement, post relaxations in the COVID-19 lockdown announced by the government.
The COVID-19 management plan involves intensified surveillance, strict monitoring of those who are under home quarantine and ramping up of fever clinics, along with testing of persons and speeding up the vaccination drive.
“Over 1,000 volunteers drawn from various line departments have been covering all households in town panchayats and village panchayats to identify Influenza Like Illness (ILI) cases,” District Collector P.N. Sridhar told The Hindu.
“Already, the daily testing rate has been increased to 3,000 and, on an average, more than 50 to 60 fever camps are being conducted across the district. The test positivity rate is less than 5%,” he added.
As part of pandemic prevention, we have specifically asked the teams to go and check on active cases in ‘hot spot’ areas. Simultaneously, the administration has been concentrating on IEC activities to ensure that we don’t lose grip, Mr. Sridhar said.
Vehicles fitted with public address systems, have been covering all blocks to create awareness among the people on the COVID-19 guidelines and the need for vaccination.
As many as 1.92 lakh people out of the total eligible population of 10.5 lakhs have been vaccinated. “Now we are focusing on persons with disabilities. As many as 714 out of a total of 10,000 have been vaccinated so far,” he said.
The Collector said that the administration, on priority, was also getting ready a block equipped with oxygen-supported beds in the Kallakurichi Government Medical College and Hospital for treatment of COVID-19 patients.
The district has 669 oxygen beds of which about 115 are occupied.
