Administration to add an influencer in surveillance team to gain confidence

Kolkata: Howrah Municipal Corporation (HMC) has intensified door-to-door surveillance and the team going to visit individual houses is having a local influential person to win the confidence of people.

The inclusion of an influential person in each team has been done as it was seen earlier that people do not open up all facts that help to trace cases of influenza-like diseases (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infection (SARI)to the officials.

The step has been taken as a desperate bid to check the spread of COVID-19 cases in Howrah that falls under in red zones and thsis comes when there are 93 containment zones including 79 in the areas are under Howrah Municipal Corporation till Sunday.

Initially, teams with an influential person like a well-known lawyer or police personnel or eminent personalities from the area will be sent to ward numbers 15, 29 and 31 in HMC area as a pilot project. The teams with "an influencer", as they have been named, have started visiting the areas from Monday onward. Gradually, the same will be undertaken in all 66 wards of the civic body.

A senior official of HMC said: "Door-to-door surveillance has been going on for the past few weeks. But it would not bear any result if respondents do not provide right information fearing social stigma. So the move has been taken to engage an influencer in each of the teams. It will help a responder feel confident and they will reveal all facts that is actually needed for tracing of potential COVID-19 patients." The official further said: "Earlier we can detect such people, more effective will be the steps to check the spread of COVID-19."