Odisha Prepares For COVID-19 Peak, Asks Officials To Intensify ‘Mu Bi COVID Yodha’ Awareness Campaign

Odisha government has asked officials to create awareness about the inevitable need of social distancing, mask wearing and hand hygiene to fight COVID-19

New Delhi: States and health officials across India are leaving no stone unturned in the fight against Novel Coronavirus. If we look at different states’ performance in battling the virus, Odisha has performed well, says the official numbers. According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, as on June 9, the state has reported close to 3,000 cases (2,994) of which around 2,000 people (1,993) have recovered and nine fatalities have been recorded. The COVID-19 case count tally might be comparatively low in the state, but the officials have time and again stressed that the month of June is crucial as migrant workers are returning to the state and the monsoon is standing on the door.

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In order to ensure the state manages to contain the spread of the virus as much as possible, the state government has asked different departments to intensify the COVID-19 special awareness campaign ‘Mu bi COVID yodha’ (I’m a COVID warrior).

Chief Secretary A K Tripathy issued directions to Information and Public Relation, Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water, Women and Child Development and Mission Shakti Departments to intensify IEC (Information, Education and Communication) activities with the active involvement of the community.

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Mr Tripathy asked the officials to make use of social media, television, radio, print media, advertisements to create awareness among people about the inevitable need for social distancing, mask wearing and hand hygiene.

Information, Education and Communication are the key to win the fight against COVID-19 and check the possible spread of the pandemic, the chief secretary said, as quoted by news agency PTI, adding that an aware and alert community can achieve wonders in the fight against this unseen enemy.

He noted that involvement of panchayati raj institutions in keeping an eye on the virus has yielded good results in containing the virus in initial phases. And in order to keep up with the progress and intensify awareness, Mr Tripathy asked to constitute ward level COVID committees in both urban and rural areas within a week and suggested to involve women self-help groups, farmer producer groups and school management committees.

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Talking about the awareness campaign ‘Mu bi COVID yodha’ (I’m a COVID warrior), Information and Public Relations secretary S K Singh said,

The camping has been launched to infuse in the people the values of self-responsibility with the spirit of Ama Swasthya Ama Hatare (our health in our hand).

The main aim of the campaign is to promote hand washing, personal hygiene, use of face mask, practising social distancing, taking care of old and vulnerable people, eradication of social stigma, self-monitoring, community surveillance, quarantine and making use of 104 and telemedicine.

Also Read: Here’s What Odisha Is Doing To Fight COVID-19 Battle Successfully

Talking to NDTV about how Ganjam district plans to intensify awareness, Vijay Amruta Kulange, Collector and District Magistrate, Ganjam District, said,

We already have ward level committees which we call COVID Nigrani Committee. The committee consists of Auxiliary Nurse Midwives (ANMs), ASHA workers, ward members and they are the watchdog of the district. Their role is to keep a check on people entering the district, new COVID-19 cases, follow up with people under home quarantine, monitor symptoms of people in quarantine, educate on social distancing and other things.

According to Mr Kulange, Ganjam district has already conducted district level, block level and gram panchayat level training of volunteers who educate the citizens about the Coronavirus pandemic and related things.

20,000 women from Self-help Groups (SHGs) have been trained. During the training, we mainly impart lessons on what is COVID-19, how it spreads, why is it being called a pandemic, importance of social distancing, things to keep in mind while home quarantining and other things. By the end of this week, we will be able to train 1 lakh volunteers, said Mr Kulange.

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With inputs from PTI