Jamshedpur, June 21: As part of its strategy to curb the impact of the third wave completely, East Singhbhum district administration has embarked on a two- day special drive for detection of Coronavirus positive cases across the district from Monday.
Though the Coronavirus positive cases have reduced considerably in both the urban areas of the steel city as well as in the rural areas of the district, the special drive has been launched as a precautionary move in view of the third wave of the pandemic of Covid-19 tipped to hit the country shortly.
Revealing about the special drive, district civil surgeon, AK Lal said that they have targeted to carry out 14,000 Rapid Antigen Tests (RAT) during these two days across the district.
” We have taken up this task to ensure that the impact of the next wave can be curbed. Health workers across the district have been given the task to carry out 7,000 RATs during these two days beginning from Monday. As per the plans, 7,000 tests have to be carried out in Jamshedpur and as many tests have to be done in the rural areas, ” said the civil surgeon.
Lal said for the special drive which has been launched following the instruction of East Singhbhum deputy commissioner, Suraj Kumar, 22 teams of the health officials were set up.
Lal pointed out that the pace of RAT had slowed down following the Coronavirus positive cases showed a declining trend in the district, but the district administration decided to carry out such special drives on a regular basis in view of the pandemic’s third wave.
“ The recent decline is a big relief for us. However, we do not want to give a letdown. Our focus is on three Ts Testing, Tracing and Treatment that led to controlling the prevailing situation. Moreover, the number of deaths due to COVID has also come down considerably during this period as only six persons died during the past 24 hours,” said an official of the health department.
He went on to add that the administration has decided to test everyone in the district to prevent community spread of the disease. More tests would only help the administration to prevent further spread of the disease.
“Random tests were conducted at Sakchi market today. The positivity rate has also slowed down. People were motivated to undergo tests so that the spread can be controlled. During the test drive, we have seen that people are scared to undergo tests. They need to understand that the more we conduct tests the fear of spread will get normal,” said another health official.
“The recent trend is giving us hope. Even the number of positive cases has also reduced,” he said. “It is for certain that if people start to pay utmost attention to staying indoors, keeping one’s hand sanitised again and again and wearing a mask, the Coronavirus has to go soon,” said Lal.
