RAIPUR: A strict containment strategy, coupled with effective COVID-19 management, has worked for Chhattisgarh's Bemetara, a predominantly rural district, to achieve 99 per cent recovery. The district with over 10 lakh population and 699 villages had a cumulative caseload of 19,486, out of which 18,398 have recovered. It had reported 610 cases over the past 10 days, but with 1,256 recoveries.
Bemetara executed comprehensive testing followed by standardised clinical management for those who tested positive. The district has further covered over 55 per cent of the population under its vaccination programme. Bemetara has set up 150 health centres.
"To prevent the spread of infection and promptly identify the patients, the entire health system was galvanized, with strict monitoring put in place," says Anant Tayal, District Collector.
Tayal said district-level staff of the health department, ground-level health workers and Mitanin (community health workers), officials of other departments, had their roles identified. Camps were set up in villages for vaccination. At every block level, there is a dedicated COVID hospital with oxygen beds, concentrators and medical equipment.
People from rural belts didn’t have to go to faraway district headquarters or cities. "Every primary community health centre served as public health responders. Various government buildings have been converted into fully-equipped COVID care centres," Tayal said.
A dedicated 24x7 portal and app responded to queries of the people. "In the district over 1.90 lakh tests have been done," said Dr Subhash Mishra, health department spokesperson.