Punjab, Haryana to step up screening as COVID spreads it tentacles in villages

The coronavirus spread in rural areas of Punjab and Haryana has become a cause for concern, with the authorities deciding to intensify screening and testing in villages.

According to a data of the Punjab Health Department, the current case fatality rate in Punjab's rural areas is 2.7 per cent as against less than one per cent in urban areas.

A major spike in COVID-19 cases has been witnessed in the Malwa region of Punjab, officials said.

In neighbouring Haryana, 8,000 multidisciplinary teams led by trainee doctors, Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) and Anganwadi workers, are being constituted for a door-to-door screening in villages, officials said.

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Tuesday directed officials to set up isolation centres from May 15 in villages that come under the hotspot category.

In a review meeting, he said the COVID-19 spread is not confined to urban areas only, it is also hitting rural areas hard. Khattar said those having COVID-like symptoms should immediately be quarantined.

Officials told the CM Khattar that initially there is a plan to set up 1,000 isolation centres for health checkup of villagers, an official statement said.

Khattar said 110 mini buses of Haryana Roadways are being converted into ambulances. Five ambulance buses each will be made available in every district. Apart from this, one big air-conditioned bus will also be available in every district, which can be used as an isolation centre, he added. Meanwhile, a senior Punjab health official said, ''The health staff will collect samples of symptomatic people and their family members in rural areas.'' Services of the paramedical staff are also being utilised to conduct surveys of the rural population and ensure that maximum sampling is done, the officials said.

The health authorities ascribed the higher death rate in rural areas to the self-medication by villagers and delay in going for testing.

People in rural areas take to self-medication or buy medicines from chemists for fever or any other problem but they do not get themselves tested, said officials.

But when they face breathing complications or when they are at an advanced stage of the disease, they get themselves admitted to hospitals, they further said.

Officials have also stressed that there was a need to prioritise monitoring of home isolation cases to identify serious patients in rural areas.

The Punjab Health Department has also directed that COVID-19 testing of symptomatic patients getting treatment from private clinics and registered medical practitioners in rural areas must be ensured.

Earlier, Haryana CM Khattar had said since the infection is spreading fast in rural areas, screening camps focusing on "test, track and treat" should be held.

Haryana's Home and Health Minister Anil Vij said teams are conducting surveys in rural areas.

On 21 people dying in Rohtak's Titoli village in April, Vij had recently said only four of these were confirmed to have been died due to COVID.

There have been reports of nearly 40 deaths in Mundhal Khurd and Mundhal Kalan villages in Bhiwani in recent weeks, with many passing away within days away after suddenly taking sick.

Some opposition leaders claimed inadequate testing in rural areas and many of the deaths being reported recently could be because of COVID.

''We have been hearing of cases where a person was otherwise normal suddenly taken ill, developed COVID-like symptoms and died. However, in the absence of a test, the cause remains unknown,'' said a Haryana Congress leader.

Former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who sought setting up a task force to deal with problem in rural areas, said the ''infection has reached villages from the big and small towns of the state and the death toll is rising in rural areas. A large number of people have died in villages like Titoli and Mundhal".

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)