Lucknow, June 28 The Yogi Adityanath government has decided to launch a door-to-door survey across all 75 districts to screen and detect 'hidden' cases for capping coronavirus spread.
Health teams will be mapping vulnerable persons, including pregnant women, patients with co-morbid conditions like cancer, renal disease or diabetes, the elderly and children below 10 years of age.
Though the exercise is similar to the campaign recently launched in Delhi, but replicating the model in Uttar Pradesh is a huge task, with the state having a population of over 23 crores.
According to Additional Chief Secretary Health, Amit Mohan Prasad, "The drive will begin on July 1 from Meerut division and health officials will fan out to other districts from July 5."
He said that the campaign would begin from Meerut since there is an urgency to curb the corona spread in the district.
"Over 47 per cent cases reported in past 24 hours are from Meerut division," he said.
The Meerut division includes the districts of Gautam Buddha Nagar and Ghaziabad, which are also a part of the national capital region and have witnessed a surge in cases. Meerut, Hapur and Bulandshahr have also recorded a spike in the corona cases this month.
Health experts feel that the onset of monsoon could trigger a spurt in other diseases like influenza and infections and further accentuate the crisis.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had already ordered setting up of one lakh teams to raise surveillance across the state.
Health teams will knock at every doorstep to create awareness and gather information.
The survey would be undertaken with the help of district administration, who are using the pulse polio campaign template for the purpose. Also, health staff like ASHA and auxiliary nurse, midwives, civil defence volunteers, booth-level officials (BLO) and municipal staff, will be deployed to conduct the survey. The district machinery and police will also be engaged to supervise and ensure safety of teams, the government spokesman said.
All staff would be provided with sanitisers and protective gear.
Meanwhile, in a related development, the Yogi government has decided to launch 'crowdsourcing of ideas' to aid the ongoing battle against coronavirus.
Slated for launch on July 1, the campaign aims to gather unique ideas to curb the virus spread. Anyone in the state can share their ideas in a one-minute video or a 150-word description with the health department. The best ideas will be rewarded.
( With inputs from IANS )