Restricted impact of second wave in rural J’khand: Survey
Intensive public health survey started on May 25 across panchayats in state; Covid-19 positivity rate in rural areas stood at 0.49%
RANCHI: In a relief for Jharkhand, a survey report of a recently conducted door-todoor intensive public health survey in the hinterlands has showed little impact of the ongoing second wave of Covid-19 in rural areas.
As the second wave started making inroads in rural areas as well, the state government decided to undertake an intensive public health survey (IPHS) starting May 25 with an aim to cover each and every household across panchayats in the state. The survey concluded on Saturday.
According to the data assembled till June 4 (compilation of final data was yet to be done), as many as 4,912,469 households comprising a total of 24,410,412 persons were covered under the survey . “Out of 2.44 crore people screened, 1,86,509 suspected cases of Covid-19 were detected. All suspected cases underwent rapid antigen test (RAT), in which only 920 returned positive. The positive cases included 35 children in the age group of 0-18. Of the 920 positive cases, 911 are asymptomatic and hence observing home isolation. The remaining nine cases are admitted to Covid-19 care centres,” said Sidhartha Tripathi, officer in special duty of IEC wing in health department.
The disease’s positivity rate (number of positive cases per 100 samples tested) in rural Jharkhand stood at as low as 0.49%, indicating reduced spread of infection. Explaining the survey findings, Tripathi said, “We can now say that rural Jharkhand is safe as the pandemic didn’t penetrate the hinterlands. Initially, we were scared that the contagion may have infected villagers. Considering this, we set up 464 Covid-19 care centres (CCC) in rural belts. But through IPHS, only 920 positive cases were discovered, of which nine were admitted at CCCs.”
Tripathi also highlighted that a total of 24,849 people died in past two months in rural Jharkhand.
“These deaths were either natural or due to some other reasons and not due to Covid-19. The number of deaths in last two months was surprisingly fewer than normal times. It may be due to restricted movement of people that eventually reduced the number of accidental deaths. There can be many other factors for the less number of deaths.”
However, the health survey showed a disturbing trend of several people showing symptoms of critical diseases such as tuberculosis, diabetes and abnormal blood pressure. While 15,692 persons showed symptoms of tuberculosis in first eight days of the survey, 111,520 persons showed symptoms of diabetes, and 113,296 showed signs of abnormal blood pressure.