‘We know the risks, but right now focus is on breaking virus chain’
SBSNAGAR/JALANDHAR: In the battle against coronavirus, the contribution and commitment of state health department’s on-ground workers has been immense across Doaba. These employees include the auxiliary nurse midwives (ANMs) and primary and multipurpose health workers. They have been working across villages, some of them sealed, to trace the contact history of positive patients by door-to-door surveys and to monitor persons who have been home quarantined. With 19 cases at SBS Nagar so far, they are often racing against time too.
DOOR-TO-DOOR SURVEYS ON
Nirmala Devi, ANM, was posted at the health centre in Pathlawa village of SBS Nagar in 1997. “I am committed to breaking down the chain of virus” she says. On life at home after a 12-hour work day, she says, “I isolate myself at home. I am a single mother and thus have to cook for kids and other family members, which is also a risk.” Her colleague, Parmila Devi, who has conducting door-to-door surveys with another senior staff member Balwinder Kaur, said the work involves preparing 12 types of reports.
‘WORKING AS A TEAM CRITICAL’
At Bharowal sub-centre in SBS Nagar, Jaswinder Singh, 38, a multipurpose health worker, who had a leg amputated in 2009, has been tasked with monitoring home quarantined people. “We are working as a team and visiting 30 houses a day for follow-up,” said Jaswinder.
At Virk village in Phillaur, where five positive cases were reported, the entire 4,000-population was surveyed for contacts of the patients.
Avtar Chand, 54, multipurpose supervisor (MPS), says, “I, along with team comprising another MPS, ANM and anganwadi worker, traced three relatives of Baldev Singh.”
Kuldeep Verma, 48, another MPS, said, “The biggest challenge is that most people are unaware and if we identify a suspected patient, they and their family members do not cooperate.”