Assam to start community surveillance for SARI, ILI to contain COVID-19

The Assam government firmed up plans to start community based surveillance for Severe Acute Respiratory Infections (SARI) and Influenza Like Illness (ILI) across the state in order to contain the possible spread of COVID-19, according to an official document. To carry forward this programme and monitor it on a daily basis, a State Level Task Force and a State Level Coordination Committee have been set up.

A set of guidelines has been issued through the standard operating procedure for Assam Community Surveillance Plan (ACSP) for COVID-19' on Monday night and the government will start to execute the initiative from Thursday in all districts. However, the surveillance shall commence from May 16 in Kokrajhar, Kamrup Metropolitan, Jorhat, Sonitpur and Cachar districts, where five Zonal Screening Camps will be set up for people coming from outside the state.

"Assam has been successful in breaking the chain of transmission and containment of COVID-19 epidemic in the state in first phase. In order to strengthen the response mechanism going forward, the surveillance system has to be strengthened further. "It has been increasingly felt that with the increase in the testing capacity, the surveillance mechanism should be enhanced to cover all SARI and ILI cases so that they are identified from the hospitals and the community respectively and tested," the document said.

The objective of the ACSP has been defined as to identify any COVID-19 transmission, find unreported cases of SARI and ILI from every village, look for any clustering of such cases in a specific area, treat symptomatic minor flu cases at homes and create a database of such persons, including the migrant population. This exercise will also strengthen the surveillance for other diseases associated with fever like Japanese encephalitis, malaria, dengue, measles and rubella, said the standard operating procedure issued by Health and Family Welfare Principal Secretary Samir K Sinha.

It also said that ACSP will ensure that all SARI and ILI cases are tested for COVID-19, followed by mapping and linking the places and accordingly plan for adequate beds and ICU facilities. Meanwhile, the Health and Family Welfare Department in its daily bulletin said a total of 4.75 lakh people have been screened across Assam, of whom 77,074 are undergoing 28-day home quarantine at present.

Of the 4.75 lakh people, 1.16 returned from COVID-19 affected countries and states. The state has tested a total of 13,442 samples for novel coronavirus infection, of which 43 have been found positive and one has died. Thirty-two have been cured and released from hospitals, the bulletin said.

For smooth operations of the ACSP programme, a State Level Task Force is constituted under the chairmanship of the Principal Secretary of the Health and Family Welfare Department. "The role of the Task Force is to guide and review the programme and issue necessary policy directions from time to time," the document said.

Similarly, a State Level Coordination Committee is formed under the Commissioner and Secretary of the Health and Family Welfare Department to look after the day-to-day affairs of the programme and provide directions to the Deputy Commissioners to make the surveillance a success. All the DCs will be responsible for the implementation of the ACSP, but it will not be carried out in the containment zones as active surveillance is already in place in these areas.