Residents unwilling to go for voluntary Covid testing in Doaba

JALANDHAR: Despite free covid-19 test, convincing people who are fearful of being stigmatised, especially in rural areas, to voluntarily undergo it has become an uphill task. Jalandar authorities are, thus, finding it hard to meet daily targets.

In many localities, most people with co-morbidities have refused to undergo covid tests even when teams visited their houses. Following this, local administrations in the Doaba region are now taking assistance of panchayats to ensure testing of all village residents.

The administration has also asked Accredited Social Health Activists (Asha) workers and panchayats in the district to generate more awareness among locals and ensure covid testing. “The biggest concern is that people are coming late for treatment and many are not willing to undergo the test. To tackle this, we are seeking help from gram panchayats and many have already submitted affidavits that they will cooperate with health officials,” said Kapurthala deputy commissioner Deepti Uppal.

Jalandhar had identified 35,000 people and Kapurthala over 40,000 people with comorbidities such as fever, TB and non-communicable diseases in a survey in August. However, not even 40% of these have been tested yet, with most unwilling to get tested.

Epidemiologist Dr Satish Kumar said rural areas were more challenging than urban, and that SDMs concerned and panchayat members are already visiting localities with health officials to assist them in sampling.

“Health department officials are making efforts. There cannot be an immediate improvement and change in the attitude of people to come willingly for tests. Otherwise, we are conducting tests of hundreds of people a day,” said Dr TP Singh Jalandhar nodal officer covid-19.