Surveillance using CCTVs with police assistance to monitor compliance with wearing masks and social distancing norms and augmenting protection mechanisms for elderly are among the key measures recommended at a meeting convened by Lt. Governor Kiran Bedi with experts from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) at the Raj Nivas on Friday.
The discussions, led by Prabhdeep Kaur, ICMR senior scientist, focused on raising protection for vulnerable sections of senior citizens with co-morbidities through ensuring linkages between field staff and high-risk groups.
The delivery of drugs at sub-centres or at home to minimise the movement of elderly persons, calendar of visits by field staff to homes of high-risk groups and early detection of hypoxia were suggested.
Besides, equipping all field staff with pulse oximeters, undertaking periodic visits to symptomatic and home-isolated patients for checking them using oximeters and strengthening non-family contact tracing were also recommended.
On the private sector engagement, it was decided to undertake fortnightly meeting with private practitioners to encourage referrals for COVID-19 testing and sharing of findings/ lessons of senior clinicians of the clinical management review teams of Jipmer and IGMCRI with Indian Medical Association and private practitioners for standardising treatment protocol.
It was also decided to categorise COVID-19 incidence zones so as to flag areas/regions with high incidence, recent increase in cases and deaths for disseminating alerts and to caution counsel. It was also proposed to identify quacks through PHC medical officers and appeals to people, and initiate immediate action.
For improving inter-departmental co-ordination, PHC medical officers will hold meetings with field workers of all departments at regular intervals and report to the COVID war room.
Training to field workers will be imparted by the ICMR central team and home isolation/quarantine protocols are to be more structured.
Regarding outlying regions, the ICMR team will conduct regular video-conferencing to take stock of COVID-19 management in enclaves of Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam.
