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MaharashtratolaunchsurveytodetectCovidpatientsandtheircontactsonthelinesof‘Dastak’campaign

As the Covid-19 cases crossed 17,000 on a single day yesterday, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has proposed to launch a statewide door-to-door survey of Covid-19 patients and their contacts from mid-September. This will be on the lies of the ‘Dastak’ campaign implemented by the BJPled government in Uttar Pradesh. The state will engage people’s representatives for its success. This is important as the state has crossed the 8 lakh mark, while active cases are above 2 lakh.

The Uttar Pradesh government had carried out a ‘Dastak’ campaign last year to eradicate deadly Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) and Japanese Encephalitis (JE) disease. The teams went door-to-door in every village of the state's 75 districts and created awareness about communicable diseases as well as AES and JE. Thackeray last week had met the UP Government’s Covid-19 advisor Dr Sachin Gupte who had briefed him about a number of initiatives including Dastak to curb communicable diseases. A state government officer, who was present at the meeting, told FPJ,

“Massive door-to-door campaign will be launched from midSeptember to search corona patients and the people who came in contact at home and outside. Various factors will be taken into account for the conducting door-todoor survey including the factors causing spread of coronavirus pandemic in urban and rural areas. The government proposes to lay emphasis on creating public awareness, involving people and elected representatives, people with comorbidity and health experts and counsellors. The administration will further strengthen the testing and emergency treatment facilities.’’ The door-to-door survey will be carried out for a month.

In addition, social distance, use of masks and hygiene will be implemented throughout the state. The state government will establish vigilance committees at village level by increasing the participation of legislators and corporators in the effective implementation of door to door survey.

In a related move, Thackeray has asked the administration in Pune Division comprising Pune, Pimpri Chinchwad, Satara, Sangli and Kolhapur where the Covid 19 cases are rapidly increasing to further step up tracing to find maximum contacts of patient, increase testing and treatment. This apart, Thackeray wants the administration to implement the Chase the Virus campaign more seriously and increase door to door surveys.