Visakhapatnam: Every household is under scanner in port city

Visakhapatnam: The district administration has intensified its war against novel coronavirus in Visakhapatnam. With a special focus on red zone and containment areas, the district authorities are now paying attention on door-to-door survey.

For about two weeks, the district did not record any new coronavirus positive case after taking the tally to 20. But, with another coronavirus case registered on April 19, taking the total to 21, a sense of fear gripped the denizens who were under the impression of being in a safe region thus far.

The district administration has swung into action by taking up containment measures, including a door-to-door survey for the fourth consecutive time. The survey is conducted in 98 wards of the GVMC. About 19,000 rapid testing kits have been readied to perform the tests. These kits will give results in 10 minutes. However, the Union government has issued directions on Tuesday to the State governments not to use the rapid testing kits for two days.

With three phases of survey already completed in red zone areas, the fourth one intends to examine each and every family member across the wards. An army of ANMs, health workers, village and ward volunteers will do the survey without leaving any home unattended, a health official said. Focus will be paid on elderly people along with health staff and sanitation workers.

District Collector V Vinay Chand has directed the officials concerned to collect samples and conduct tests on suspected persons. Intensified surveillance is in place at red zone areas, including Thatichetlapalem, Muslim Thatichetlapalem, Allipuram, Railway New Colony and Dondaparthi. In line with this, drone cameras have also been deployed to monitor violation in red zone areas.

The Collector said as per the Centre's guidelines, seven containment zones in the district have been clamped down till May 3. Besides, medical camps have been set up in the containment areas to conduct screening for suspects. Vinay Chand added that tests will be performed for patients with chronic diseases as well.

From April 1, data of those visiting PHCs, CHCs, area hospitals, private and registered hospitals in all the 15 constituencies across the district has been collected and samples will be taken from them for Covid-19 test. In addition, any complaint received from any area or field team will also be also be looked into for testing. With May 3 as their deadline to complete the fourth survey, the district authorities aim to cover all the localities and collect samples for Covid-19 test.