COVID surveillance in rural U.P. hit by lack of kits

Asha workers lack both protective gear and testing tools in the State’s drive to identify symptomatic persons

“People don’t take us seriously. Why would they, when I cannot even record their temperature and oxygen level for them,” says Veermati Singh, standing at her door in Nindemau, a village in Unnao. An Asha worker, among the thousands of frontline workers tasked with surveillance and monitoring of COVID-19 in rural Uttar Pradesh, Ms. Singh speaks of the obstacles faced by her in the absence of proper protective gear and equipment. In addition to its ongoing routine surveillance, the State government from May 5 to May 9 reportedly carried out a special drive for identifying symptomatic patients and testing them through village-level over 60,000 nigrani samiti or surveillance committees. Asha workers and anganwadi workers are an integral part of the samiti, which includes the village headman, and other local functionaries.