The staff deployed in the COVID-19 prevention exercise will undergo swab tests to screen them for the virus.
A direction in this regard was issued by the Zonal Officer, COVID-19 virus spreading prevention exercise and the Commissioner, State Archaeological Department, M.S.Shanmugam at a review meeting held at the Rajah Mirasdar Government Hospital here on Friday.
Chairing the review meeting, Mr.Shanmugam wanted the staff deployed in the COVID-19 virus spreading prevention exercise to get tested for the infection. For this purpose, a senior official from each department involved in the exercise should be deputed and that officer should ensure that all the government staff deployed for the duty from his/her department had been tested for COVID-19 virus infection.
He had also urged the Health Department to expedite the swab tests on the first-level contacts of the infected persons and the second-level of the contacts of infected persons’ contacts.
Robot donated
The Zonal Officer lauded SASTRA, a Deemed University, for extending its support to the District Administration in the fight against coronavirus by donating a robot.
The Zonal Officer, in a press release, has said that the robot designed by the students and manufactured by the institution would be pressed into service at the COVID-19 special ward at the Thanjavur Medical College hospital. The machine which could carry a load of 25 kilograms would be used to serve food and medicines to the patients at the ward.
Since the machine had been designed in such a manner that it could be operated from a distance of one kilometer, it would help avoid moving close to the patients for serving food or medicines by the duty staff, he added. Additional machines would be obtained for deployment at the TMC from the institution as aspired by the doctors.
Further, Mr.Shanmugham said it was being contemplated to create audio and video facilities at the Special Ward to help the patients relieve their stress caused by the monotonous environment. It had also been proposed to provide newspapers to the patients to help them feel comfortable.
