Door-to-door surveillance: Civic body workers will now carry pulse oximeter

Kolkata: Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has taken a significant stride towards capacity augmentation to strethen its fight against COVID-19.

KMC health workers who are conducting door-to-door surveillance will now be provided with pulse oximeter for more effective identification of persons with COVID-19 symptoms. The civic body has also augmented the number of ambulances for ferrying Covid positive patients to hospitals or quarantine facilities.

The number of hearse vans for carrying Covid dead bodies has also been increased from 5 to 7. Interestingly it has been found that among the people who have tested Covid positive in KMC area, from June 28 till date, 1,400 persons live in apartments or standalone buildings and only 174 in slums.

"Our health workers going door-to-door have been provided with thermal guns for detecting body temperature. Now we will be providing them with pulse oximeters which is a small lightweight device used for monitoring the amount of oxygen carried in the body," said Alapan Bandyopadhyay, nodal officer of KMC for COVID-19, after holding a review meeting with senior officials of Health unit of the civic body.

Doctors dealing with Covid patients have found a reasonable number of asymptomatic persons who have tested Covid positive have been having alarmingly low levels of oxygen saturation.