Aurangabad, March 17:
The Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) will be undertaking a massive testing drive in the city for early detection of Coronavirus infected persons and provide early treatment upon them. To achieve the goal, administrator A K Pandey has announced deploying 54 testing teams in the city soon.
In this Facebook live address to the citizens, the administrator informed the need for a massive testing drive with the people's participation. Pandey mentioned that acting upon the directives of the guardian minister Subhash Desai, the AMC has swung into action to overcome the prevailing gruesome situation in the city. " The sudden reporting of 1,011 infected patients on Tuesday has prompted the administration to undertake the massive testing drive in the city. Earlier, the testing was already underway at our 24 static centres (for testing) and by 10 mobile teams. Now, we will be deploying 54 testing teams in the city soon. It includes 18 teams (six teams in one shift of eight hours) for testing visitors at all six points of entrances (PoEs); 24 teams will be deployed at 24 static centres (one team at each centre); six mobile testing teams and six teams for testing in the Containment Zones (of each person staying in 200 metres periphery of Covid-19 person). Apart from these 54 teams, the six teams which are already functioning will continue to conduct testing of visitors at the important government offices," he elaborated.
Change in containment zone policy
" The areas from where more than 20 Covid-19 patients are detected will be declared as containment zones. Depending upon the gravity of the situation, we will categorise micro, medium and big containment zones. We will not be sealing the boundaries of containment zones now. Instead, as per the new policy, the AMC will display stickers, posters and banners on various nook and corner to understand the people that their area is a containment zone. The AMC will appoint one volunteer on every 50 infected patients. He will act as a nodal officer in organising the vaccination programme. Besides, the teams comprising teachers, ANMs and Asha Workers will continue to visit the containment zones and keep a vigil on infected patients under home isolation. They will update the War Room about the health status of each infected persons on a daily basis. We are also increasing the staff in Covid War Room," he stressed.
20 buses for transportation
We have acquired 20 Smart City buses to transport the health squad and the Covid-19 patients (detected through testing) from the containment zones to the CCC. Presently, the transportation was done in two ambulances of AMC and four private ambulances (hired by AMC). I am striving to enhance the services by adding 10 new ambulances to tackle the emergency, said Pandey.