Rapid tests key in Centre’s rural SOP

THE CENTRE HAS DIRECTED STATES TO CONDUCT SURVEILLANCE FOR INFLUENZA-LIKE ILLNESS USING ASHA WORKERS

NEW DELHI: The Centre is focusing on Covid-19 containment and management in non-urban areas, as “a gradual ingress is now being seen in peri-urban, rural and tribal areas as well”, said new detailed guidelines that the Union health ministry released on Sunday, adding that the disease is still predominantly an urban phenomenon.

The focus will be on locally managed care centres and scaling up rapid testing where RT-PCR facilities are not accessible.

“With larger spread of Covid-19 cases in peri-urban, rural and tribal areas, it is important to ensure that community-based services and primary level health infrastructure in these areas are equipped and oriented to manage Covid-19 cases,” the health ministry said in the guidelines.

Gram panchayats have been assigned the prime responsibility of coordinating community action and awareness creation at village level and the block development officer (BDO) at the taluka level. The efforts on the medical care side will be coordinated by the village health, nutrition and sanitation committee (VHSNC) along with the primary health centre and sub-centre.

Surveillance, screening, isolation and referral

The centre has directed states to periodically conduct surveillance for influenza-like illness or severe acute respiratory infections (ILI/SARI) using accredited social health activists (ASHA) , with the help of VHSNCS.

Symptomatic cases can be triaged at village level by teleconsultation with the Community

Health Officer (CHO), and cases with comorbidity or low oxygen saturation will be sent to higher centres.

All subcentres will run an ILI/SARI out patient department for dedicated time slots every week.

Suspected Covid-19 patients will be linked for testing to the health facilities either through rapid antigen testing or by referral of samples to the nearest Covid-19 testing laboratory.

Provision of Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) kits will be made at all public health facilities including sub-centres, health and wellness centres, and primary health centres, and community health officers as well as auxiliary nurse midwives will be trained in performing these tests..

“It is important to test symptomatic cases so that positive individuals can be isolated early, and stopped from spreading the infection,” said Dr GC Khilnani, senior pulmonologist and former head of the pulmonology department, AIIMS, Delhi.