Bihar to monitor home quarantined at panchayat level

New Delhi: Bihar has decided to ask everyone entering the state to quarantine themselves at their homes, once it closes all the quarantine centres run by the state government by June 15. Such persons will be monitored by panchayat level health workers and social workers engaged with the government.“This is going to be the biggest community surveillance exercise on the lines of the Pulse Polio mission,” Pratyay Amrit, principal secretary, Disaster Management Department, told ET. “Health workers would regularly visit every household to check the health of the people who have come from outside or their families, especially those who are 65 years old or above and children up to 10 years old.”The number of block quarantine centres stood at 10,739 on Thursday evening, down from about 17,000 in the beginning, with 372,222 people staying in them. “The process of people coming back is almost complete and those in quarantine would complete their 14-day period by June 15,” said Amrit. “Still one or two special trains carrying workers are coming to the state.” Till date, more than 1.5 million people have stayed in Bihar’s quarantine centres and the state has spent Rs 5,300 on average on persons staying in these centres. As per the government’s estimates, about 2.05 million people had come to the state by Shramik Special trains till Thursday evening.Since transport routes have now opened for all, the state government has changed its strategy for checking new infections. Quarantine centres will be replaced by isolation centres at block level where anyone, asymptomatic or with mild symptoms, will be taken.

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/3gY6Qmd