GUNTUR: As per a government order released earlier this week, Guntur city has been categorised under areas with migrant workers without housing/homeless poor, and slum and non-slum areas in view of the novel coronavirus. Further, the civic body has declared seven localities--Mangaldas Nagar, Sangadigunta, Anandpeta, Kummaribazar, LB Nagar, Darga Manyam and Srinivasaraothota--as red zones.
As many as 80 teams, comprising employees of various wings of the GMC, have been deployed to disinfect 76,000 houses in these areas. The GMC teams--primary health and surveillance (PHS), secondary health and surveillance (SHS) and municipal health and surveillance (MHS)--are working under the direct supervision of the district collector.
These teams work in coordination with each other. The first-level PHS teams, which take up door-to-door survey on a regular basis, share information regarding sick persons with the SHS teams, which consist of medical officers and para-medical staff. The SHS teams then visit the households to find out the severity of the sickness, and if a patient is considered ‘high risk’, then MHS teams are called into action for shifting of the patient to an isolation ward or a quarantine camp.
The MHS teams is comprised of civic chief, additional medical officers, revenue divisional officers (RDOs) and deputy superintendents of police (DSPs). The red zones established to prevent the spread of covid-19, have been barricaded to restrict the movement of the general public. Further, section 144 has been clamped in these areas too.
GMC chief C Anuradha said 69 persons with suspected covid-19 symptoms were hospitalised following the declaration of containment zones, and that 433 more were shifted to quarantine centres. “As many as 300 homeless poor have been shifted to shelter homes. Food has been arranged for 700 workers at the mirchi yard,” she added.
GMC teams
As many as 80 teams, comprising employees of various wings of the GMC, have been deployed to disinfect 76,000 houses in these areas and work under the supervision of district collector