COVID-19: Jammu admin begins week-long exercise to screen its entire population

Jammu, Apr 27 () The Jammu district administration on Monday began a massive door-to-door survey for "COVID-19 health audit" to screen its over 15 lakh population within a week's time, a senior official said.

Hundreds of teams spread to distant areas of the city to carry out the extensive health audit to break the chain of virus.

"An extensive coronavirus health survey has been started in the entire district to break the chain of virus. It is unique because we are going to screen over 15 lakh population of the district," Jammu Deputy Commissioner Sushma Chauhan told .

She said every household in Jammu will be screened within a week.

The DC said it is a three-level mechanism to conduct the screening and health audit.

She said the administration has constituted basic level of 1,400 teams to conduct the survey.

The teams, which will be headed by Block Level officer (BLO) besides Asha and Anganwadi workers, will visit every household to check symptoms of virus if, any, on their Swasthya Nidhi app for recording several health queries.

She said each team will survey 50-55 households each day and information would be send to second level of 250 medical officers.

Subsequently, a medical team will visit that particular household to check suspected patients, she said.

The team of doctors will visit the household which will have 4 to 5 symptoms and will recommend sampling and testing depending of the checkup of particular person to Chief Medical officer, the DC said.

She appealed to the people to cooperate with the teams to win the fight against coronavirus.

Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Girish Chandra Murmu has called for devising a robust mechanism for door-to-door survey under Swasthya Nidhi for effectively combating the spread of COVID-19 in the Union Territory.

The LG, during a meeting, directed for making the survey more informative and comprehensive as it would become a ready database for future health-related information and welfare schemes.

Murmu was apprised about the necessity of undertaking repeat surveys and health audit of large areas and Swasthya Nidhi provides an ideal platform to reach out to each household in the UT.

It was informed that the pilot survey in Jammu was launched on April 17 for five hotspots, covering 29 electoral booths, which was completed on April 22.

Seven districts of the UT are being surveyed. AB CK