Hyderabad: Community-level Covid-19 awareness program launched

Musheerabad: Even after adequate information made available to the public on prevention and protection from COVID-19, the awareness on personal hygiene is found to be relatively low amongst the rural population and slum-dwellers who visit hospital and also use public transport.

City-based NGOs Helping Hand Foundation (HHF) and Round Table India along with Ladies Circle joined hands together with Gandhi Hospital, which is one of the nodal centers for COVID-19 in the State, to run a month-long grassroot level community awareness campaign for visitors at Gandhi, other government hospitals, public transport points and slums.

Volunteers from the NGO would display live skits and demonstrations using charts to show hand hygiene, cough and sneeze etiquettes, mask usage and disposal and protection from infected surfaces and how to maintain safe distances from people affected with cough.

The campaign was formally launched at Gandhi Hospital on Thursday by Dr P Shravan Kumar, Superintendent, Gandhi Hospital, in presence of Dr MG Krishnamurthy, HOD and Prof of Respiratory Medicine and Pulmonology, Dr Vinay Shekhar, HOD, General Medicine, Dr Raja Rao, Prof of General Medicine at Gandhi Hospital and other hospital administrators and members of the NGOs.

The focus of the drive would be on the attendees, visitors, patients and the general public who use public transport and those who are mainly from rural areas and slums.

The month-long campaign will be run by a team of eight volunteers of HHF trained by the Gandhi doctors. They would practically demonstrate good hygiene methods.

A daily roster of activities has been drawn and the campaign will start from 7:30 am and cover one labour naka per day, later the team will cover waiting halls and OPD area at Gandhi hospital and touch Jubilee Bus Station, Secunderabad Railway station, MGBS, Kacheguda and Nampally stations.

On Sundays, the focus will be in slum areas, Aganwadis and Rythu bazaars.

Dr MG Krishnamoorthy explained that the key focus of the campaign would be on prevention through good hygiene practices that are not only useful for preventing Covid-19 but even for H1N1.

"We are making a modest attempt to reach out to denizens by doing live actionable skits on the street to create awareness and enhance their hygiene quotient, which will be very critical in the event of community-level transmission," said Mujtaba Hasan Askari, of HHF.

Dr P Shravan Kumar lauded the efforts of the NGOs and said the awareness drive on hygiene was an important measure in ensuring the safety of all those who visit the hospital and emphasised that the team uses live demonstrations on good hygiene practices.