RR Nagar turns to Covid-19 warriors after celeb testing campaign flops

Badly hit by Covid-19, the RR Nagar zone has been trying to increase testing numbers, but an attempt to get celebrities to endorse testing fell flat.

Testing numbers, however, started to rise after the zone started profiling “corona warriors” such as Asha workers, swab collectors, medicos and ambulance drivers, in short videos posted on social media. However, the workers and medicos complain of continued public anger in the streets to Covid testing.

At the height of the celebrity endorsements, the zone was testing on average only 43 people per UPHC. The reason, according to a government zonal officer, was that the celebrity endorsement, in the end, proved not much of a factor. “Testing numbers increased by only about 200 daily,” the officer said.

The zone, which has a population of 1.09 lakh, out of which 85,000 live in slums, has 14 wards and 12 Urban Primary Health Centers (UPHCs). It is one of those outlying city areas where the disease spread has increased since mid-September.

Dr Nagaraju S, the BBMP joint commissioner for the zone, said the involvement of corona warriors had helped in certain areas. “We had to undertake a change in our strategy because we have been given a huge daily testing target: 4,816 tests per day. We increased the size of our testing teams from three to five per PHC. But we needed an effective manner of convincing people to test,” he said.

Since October 3, however, by when corona warriors took over from the celebs, the zone has conducted an average of 189 tests per UPHC. This is nevertheless still short of the mark as the Palike has demanded: 401 daily tests per UPHC. The zonal officer said that the appeal of Asha workers, swab collectors, ambulance staff and medicos is their down-to-earth nature.

Anger in the streets

However, Roopa, 30, an Asha worker who appears in one of the videos, said that not enough of the message had gone out.

“People do not want to get tested. They shout at us and sometimes even come to strike us. In my video, I asked the public to appreciate that we also have families and it is important to halt the spread of Covid-19,” she said, adding, however, that based on continued hostility from the public, the campaign has not yet worked.

As per the zone’s Twitter account, 11 celebrities were profiled between September 10 and September 24, ranging from film actors Satish Chandra and Vinaya Prasad to theatre artistes such as Jayadeva Mohan and Vinay Chandra.