KOCHI: With a population of merely around 14,000 and most of the residents falling below middle class, Marady panchayat shows the way for other local bodies in Covid testing and bringing down the test positivity rate (TPR).
Situated around seven km away from Muvattupuzha, the panchayat got the attention of chief secretary V P Joy during the Covid review meeting on Friday.
With health workers feeling the heat from many LSGDs to bring down TPR, Marady panchayat takes a different approach in vaccination procedures and testing to detect cases before it spreads in the society.
Despite a small population, the panchayat conducts nearly 1,000 tests per week.
The local body resorts to awareness, testing, isolation and vaccination to achieve excellence. Rapid response teams constituted in each ward are also doing their part to identify symptomatic people .
“When a person is tested positive we would shift him or her to domiciliary care centre to prevent further spread and allow primary contacts to undergo home quarantine. Besides, we used to conduct RT-PCR test of the person three days prior to vaccination or antigen test at the spot of the vaccination,” said Dr Amarlal, medical officer of the panchayat.
The local body also tests all those who step out of their houses to make a livelihood once in a week by giving them a particular time slot for undergoing testing.
The population above 18 years old comes to around 13,000 and 90% of them have already been vaccinated at least with the first dose.
Panchayat president O P Baby said it was testing and vaccination that helped the panchayat to prevent the spread of the infection in its limit.
Currently there are 57 active cases. It has witnessed four Covid deaths and 1,570 total cases so far. During the second save, the panchayat’s TPR went up to 15% and now, the TPR stands below 4%.
