Bhubaneswar: Door-to-door surveillance to identify persons with COVID-19 symptoms started across Odisha Tuesday.
An announcement in this regard was made by the State Government Monday.
The survey will be conducted by ASHA and ANM workers between June 16 and July 31. The surveillance teams will visit all households in 53,845 villages and slums in all the 103 urban areas.
“ASHA and ANM workers have been tasked with surveillance in rural and slum areas to identify persons with COVID-19 symptoms,” said Shalini Pandit, National Health Mission (NHM) director.
She said the government would ensure testing of all symptomatic persons and close contacts of positive cases adhering to the revised ICMR guidelines. The strategy would help detect more Covid-19 cases, she added.
“Since the lockdown curbs were eased, the number of cases has been going up in the country and in Odisha. This is natural. According to doctors, the spike will continue to increase for the next 4-6 weeks. For balancing between life and livelihood, the government has eased restrictions. However, individual responsibility has increased. We all must be more careful,” she said.
Pandit added that due to aggressive contact tracing and isolation of positive cases, the death rate has been kept under check in Odisha.
PNN/Agencies