GUWAHATI: A school teacher in Arunachal Pradesh has set up a screening centre to protect the villagers from the disease.
Armed with a thermal screening machine, John Panyang would man the makeshift centre at Ngorlung-Ralung village entry point in East Siang district near the Assam-Arunachal inter-state border throughout the day.
The facility had come up four days ago and since then some 300 villagers, who arrived from outside, were thermal-screened. Three of them were detected with high fever and referred to the Community Health Centre (CHC), Ruksin. Their swab samples were collected but they tested negative.
The 37-year-old Panyang, who serves at the Government Higher Secondary School in Ruksin, is assisted by village authorities, youth and volunteers. The district administration has hailed his initiative.
“I am touched by his endeavour. The schools are shut but he is very productively using his time by engaging himself in the noble task,” East Siang District Magistrate Kinny Singh said.
The social worker had spent from his pocket to get a thermal screening machine ordered from Guwahati. He received donations from well-wishers which helped him erect the bamboo and polythene-make transparent screening centre and buy hand sanitiser, masks, hand gloves etc.
“As a representative of ABK Youth Wing, I had worked in collaboration with the CHC Ruksin in the past two months and I learnt how to operate the thermal screening machine. I am extending the service in the interests of the twin villages – Ngorlung and Ralung,” Panyang, a native of Ngorlung, told this newspaper.
He said his idea that every individual headed to the two villages must be screened was accepted by village authorities.
“I gave the idea considering that many of our people were returning from outside. There is a risk of community transmission through them. Then, there are government employees from the two villages who attend offices outside. We thought they must also be screened at least once in five days,” Panyang said.
With around 300 households, the two villages have a combined population of more than 1,600.