COVID-19: 1,100 teams formed to conduct house-to-house survey in Delhi

At least 1,100 teams comprising two members each have been formed to conduct a mega exercise to screen the national capital's population for the novel coronavirus, officials of the Delhi government's revenue department said on Friday.

An official said around 100 teams have been formed in every district and each team has accredited social health activists (ASHA) and auxiliary nurse midwives (ANM) as its members.

According to the 2011 Census, there were over 34.35 lakh households in the national capital, including 33.56 lakh in urban areas and 79,574 in rural areas.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government has not engaged municipal employees for the mega exercise in those districts where the case-load is not high. 

The process of screening every household, which has to be completed by July 6, has already started in the municipal wards of some districts.

The teams are armed with a mobile application -- SS Corona -- which will send real-time details to a dedicated web portal set up by the government.

Apart from basic details like name, age, address and contact number, the teams are feeding the mobile application with information such as every individual's travel history, whether or not they use the Centre's Aarogya Setu app and if they have symptoms of influenza.

The official said the same mobile application is being used in carrying out screening in the COVID-19 containment zones in the national capital.

"Training of the ASHA workers and ANMs has been done. The exercise has started. We hope to meet the July 6 deadline," another official said.

"We will engage domestic breeder checkers, sanitation workers and teachers of municipal corporation schools for the survey, if we require their services in the coming days," he added.

This is a trust-based exercise, the official said, adding, "We cannot force somebody to undergo the test. We only update the information based on the answers to our questionnaire and conduct the rapid antigen test on those who have COVID-19-like symptoms."

According to a revised COVID-19 response plan issued by the Delhi government, the house-to-house screening will be completed by June 30 in the containment zones and July 6 in the remaining areas of the city. 

Image Credits: PTI