VIJAYAWADA: The state chapter of Indian Medical Association, in an advisory to the State Covid Task Force and the government, stressed the need for focus on primary care instead of augmenting hospital infrastructure, as the former would limit the disease spread and reduce the burden on the healthcare.
It opined that the focus on stopping the spread among mildly symptomatic and asymptomatic patients with community support could avoid numerous preventable deaths. It also suggested that the apathy to Covid-appropriate behaviour, the constant stream of misinformation on social media and the extreme stigma around Covid-19 patients should be controlled.
Decentralising people-centric actions through community support, therefore, could be a way to tackle the pandemic in future, it pointed out. IMA - AP was of the opinion that Community Covid Care Centres could potentially become a widespread community movement and aid government interventions in the long run. It stressed that active role of panchayats, religious organisations, housing societies, local clinics, PHCs, NGOs may help in such centres succeeding.
Stating that the CCCCs are not treatment facilities, hospitals, or clinics, but care centres for those who have been advised home isolation, IMA said the concept is potentially a self-sustainable one that could be implemented in urban, semi-urban and rural areas. Elaborating further as to how to run these Community CCCs, IMA said these centres will isolate Covid-19 patients who are suggested home isolation. They would be mapped to a govt CCC, it added.