Multiple strategies help check COVID-19 spread: Collector

‘Sustained treatment protocol was followed by administration’

RAMANATHAPURAM

Multiple strategies and effective coordination from different departments, led by Public Health officials and doctors, assisted by field staff kept the number of active cases of COVID-19 at 244 as on September 13, said Collector K Veera Raghava Rao here on Monday.

Apart from the government hospitals in Ramanathapuram and Paramakudi, covid care centres in the district functioned round the clock that it had paved way in keeping the numbers low, he said, adding Ramanathapuram was in ninth position among the 10 southern districts.

Speaking to reporters, he said out of the 244 patients, 159 were in home isolation with doctors periodically monitoring them. The district had so far treated 5181 patients and 4,824 were discharged from hospitals.

The Collector said proper planning and handling among other factors helped the district keep the virus under check. Sustained treatment protocol, systematic follow-up of discharged patients and monitoring senior citizens were the strategies followed by the administration.

Above all, aerial surveys designed as part of a containment plan helped in early identification of symptomatic cases. “Doctors, in many instances, did not wait for patients to come to medical facilities. When they got feedback from door-to-door surveys, medical teams visited them.”

The public health teams did not wait until the people turned up at the Primary Health Centres. From the beginning of July, the district administration prepared a chart and village health nurses coordinated well with the teams of doctors. At the hospitals, isolation wards were given adequate strength of paramedical staff, who gave personalised attention to the patients, especially the senior citizens. Similarly, patients, who required oxygen support, were also given an exclusive ward/bed.

Mr. Rao cautioned the public to be guarded and not to step out of their dwellings unnecessarily. Physical distancing and use of hand sanitisers and face masks were mandatory.

He said with curfew in effect, he appealed to the people not to assemble on the seashores or other places of worship to perform rituals on Mahalaya Amavasai falling on September 17.

On the occasion of National Deworming Day on Monday, the Collector inaugurated distribution of tablets to children aged up to 19 years. He said 3,49,572 children would benefit in the district. It would not cause any side-effects and would be repeated again on September 19, he added.