Check rapid Covid spread in rural areas
The second wave of Covid-19 that has turned into a tsunami clearly caught us unawares. There were indications around the world that coronavirus has returned aggressively, but we didn’t anticipate that it would hit us so badly.
Since April 30, more than 4 lakh cases are being reported every day in India. The two agrarian states of Punjab and Haryana that play a pivotal role in ensuring national food security are likely to see Covid cases peaking by May 15. Haryana remains the worst hit, adding 1.4 lakh cases in just 10 days from April 23 to May 3, followed by Punjab where 66,000 new cases were traced during this period.
These figures do not include the cases from rural areas as the testing facilities are limited. Even the daily bulletins don’t segregate rural and urban patients. For new cases, the state governments are dependent on hospitals and testing laboratories that share details with nodal agencies for compilation and reporting. People living in farflung areas reach hospitals only when they need emergency care. As a result, most states in India are not aware of the rapid virus spread in the rural areas this time.
Focus on virus in the villages
Hype and political slugfest apart, the coronavirus has put us to a kind of litmus test as a nation. It is high time governments – central and states – to turn the focus on managing and taming the virus in the rural areas. It’s painful that there are no figures of affected persons in the rural areas of Punjab and Haryana having 18,648 villages and accounting for 65% of the population.
The Covid positive figures may be alarming, even many times more than what is being reported if state governments expand their testing facilities in the rural areas.
Galvanise primary health centres
India has 25,743 primary health centres (PHCS) spread in 36 states and Union Territories against the requirement of 29,337 PHCS, as the Rajya Sabha was informed on July 23, 2019, in a written reply by minister of state for health and family welfare Ashwini Kumar Choubey. These PHCS can be galvanised to cater to the healthcare needs of the rural population.
Punjab has 432 while Haryana has 368 PHCS. Primary healthcare is the first response point in case of a pandemic. A well-equipped PHC is capable of checking unnecessary migration of panicked people towards district or sub-division level hospitals. They can organise camps for checking people with symptoms and guide them accordingly.
Involve ASHA, anganwadi workers
Their efforts can always be supplemented by Accredited Social Health Social Activists (ASHAS) and anganwadi workers. They can easily be used in identifying people with diabetes, hypertension, anaemia or any other diseases that make them more vulnerable during the pandemic. Like cities, they can organise awareness campaigns about home isolation and first aid facilities in rural areas. It has been observed that without any preventive care such as body temperature check and hand sanitisation, people still assemble at gurdwaras, temples and mosques for morning and evening prayers in rural and semi-urban areas.
In Haryana’s rural areas, people still assemble in groups for hookah smoking and playing cards. They need to be told how social distancing, wearing masks and maintaining hygiene can make all the difference.
Most of our district and subdivisional hospitals are not so well equipped as they should be, but they are still in a position to provide the best secondary level healthcare to Covid-19 patients. In Punjab and Haryana, these facilities are better as compared to other states. What’s needed is will power and intent to mitigate people’s health woes.
The way forward
At present, around one lakh people are being tested in Punjab and Haryana, but mostly in urban areas. Testing must be carried out on a large scale in rural areas for mobile testing vans will be effective.
Rapid antigen test will be helpful to isolate and medicate positive people instantly. Schools and gurdwara premises can be converted into isolation centres with oxygen and ventilator facilities.
Home guards and schoolteachers can also be deputed as frontline health workers at PHCS and Covid centres in rural areas.
Vaccination should be carried out on a large scale through mobile vans. Gram panchayats, khaps and farmer unions must be involved in the campaign for testing, isolation, medication and vaccination.
The state government can seek financial help from corporates under their CSR funds.
IT’S PAINFUL THAT THERE ARE NO FIGURES OF COVID AFFECTED PERSONS IN THE RURAL AREAS OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA, HAVING 18,648 VILLAGES AND ACCOUNTING FOR 65% OF POPULATION