BENGALURU: Amid fears of Covid-19 cases once again increasing owing to the Delta-Plus variant, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike has realised the need to increase its staff on the ground. This comes at a time when the government is emphasising on physical triaging for bed allocation and intensifying contact tracing to control the spread of the novel coronavirus.“It is important to have adequate people on the field and this is what is being addressed now,” D Randeep, Special Commissioner, health, BBMP, told TNIE.
He said adequate staff is required on the ground for surveillance, home visits, to check on containment zones, physical triaging, contact tracing and to conduct door-to-door surveys. The BBMP has currently deployed 300 ASHA and Auxiliary Nurse Midwife (ANM) workers each for this purpose. The civic body now aims to increase their strength to 1,622 and 871, respectively. It has also placed a demand for 650 joint health inspectors (JHI).
The aim is to have one ANM for every 10,000 persons, one JHI for 20,000 persons and one ASHA worker for every 5,000 persons. Randeep said talks are on with the State Government, BBMP chief commissioner and the health department to expedite the recruitment process. He said hiring more ground staff was required as bed allocation was being done only after physical triaging. Also, the health team inspects the house of a positive person before letting him or her to opt for home isolation.
He said BBMP has also asked resident welfare associations and members of apartment complexes to keep a watch on their neighbours who have tested positive. “This is important to ensure that they stay indoors and do not violate Covid and disaster management norms. With the new variant being reported, strict home vigil is very important… for this, sufficient staff should be available.
The staff will also be utilised for the implementation of other national and state care health schemes all through the year,” he added. “We need to have adequate staff on the ground to deploy them on rotational basis considering their well-being too,” a BBMP health official said.
‘Vaccination drive in B’luru to be intensified’
Bengaluru: Around 50 per cent of the adult population in Bengaluru has been vaccinated and this will increase in the coming days, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta said on Monday. Speaking to media, after visiting the special ongoing vaccination drive for students, he said, preliminary findings from the door-to-door survey suggest that some people are not taking the vaccine as the primary health centre (PHC) is far from their house. “In the coming days, special camps will be set up,” he added. He said that while vaccination of those aged above 45 years is ongoing in all PHCs, special camps in industrial and commercial spaces is being organised for those between 18- 44 years, listed under the special beneficiaries list for vaccination.