JOIN USWard panels empowered for Covid-19 to set up committees
The BBMP ward committees have just been empowered to deal with Covid-19 within the jurisdiction of their respective wards. The panels will now work as ward committees for disaster management, decentralising the battle against the raging pandemic.
In an official notification, the State Urban Development Department (UDD) has also empowered the committees to constitute as many booth-level committees (BLCs) as the electoral booths in their jurisdiction. This is to better manage the large populations in the wards, ranging from 40,000 to 60,000.
The ward committees have been tasked with creating awareness about the pandemic in the wards; preventing the spread of fake news and rumours, helping to de-stigmatise those
affected by the disease, and helping people in need of care and support.
Besides promoting the use of masks, physical distancing, and sanitation, the committees are also required to monitor the health of people with Influenza-Like Illness (ILI). This should be done by collating the house-to-house survey data on the health of households and help them access health care through primary health care centres, fever clinics, and Covid Care Centres.
The committees are also required to maintain booth-wise lists of people with vulnerabilities such as pregnant women and elderly and those with co-morbidities such as diabetes, hypertension, cardiac, urinary and other serious life-threatening diseases, and ensure that health of such people is monitored.
Coordination with BLCs and devising ways to keep a check on the health of the individuals in the identified categories are also part of the committees’ roles.
The UDD has asked the committees to meet at least once a week on Mondays and as often as the situation demands. “These meetings will be used to review the work of the BLCs, take stock of any positive patients in the ward, primary and secondary contacts of positive patients, and ensure that they properly quarantined and cared for as per the prevailing protocol,” the notification said.
Regular reports of the committees’ activities and the BLCs will be sent to the joint commissioners of the respective zones along with pictures and short videos.
A help desk with a landline telephone connection will be set up in the ward office. “The help desk should telephonically keep track of people under home quarantine and other vulnerable categories (elderly, co-morbidities and pregnant women) and ensure that their health symptoms are tracked daily in the prescribed formats for both Covid symptoms as well as any other health issue.”