New Covid Guidelines Stress On Surveillance, Screening Amid Rural Shift

The new SOPs outline the Covid containment and clinical management practices for rural and semi-urban areas.

Village-level surveillance, tele-consultation with community health officers, and training in rapid antigen testing are among the several areas of focus in the Centre's new SOPs to battle COVID-19 as the pandemic gradually moves to the semi-urban and rural areas of the country. It is important, the SOPs suggest, to ensure that community-based services and primary health infrastructure in these areas are equipped to manage infections. "In every village, active surveillance should be done for influenza-like illness/severe acute respiratory infections (ILI/SARI) periodically by ASHA with the help of Village Health Sanitation and Nutrition Committee (VHSNC)," the guidelines say. "Symptomatic cases can be triaged at village level by teleconsultation with community health officers, and cases with comorbidity/low oxygen saturation should be sent to higher centres," they say.