New Delhi: The World Health Organisation (WHO) has hailed Assam government's efforts to fight against Covid-19 pandemic.
"As Assam strives to tackle the enormous challenge of Covid-19, its leaders recognise the importance of a strong public health centre (PHC) approach to respond to the needs of communities," said WHO.
It said that in times of crisis, "PHC is a solid way to engage the community and make service more accessible. It is a crucial step towards achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and ensuring health for all."
The WHO has said that Assam has adopted a 360 degree Covid-19 response by engaging surveillance efforts, enabling early detection, isolation and treatment and keeping the virus from spreading further.
The global health watchdog, through the UHC partnership programme, has already been working closely with Assam state health authorities to strengthen the PHC centres across the state when Covid-19 struck.
Assam at present has 3540 active cases whereas 210401 people have already been cured of Covid-19 disease. The state, however, registered 1004 deaths to date.
It may be mentioned here that for one month, from May 7, the government carried out Assam Community Surveillance Plan-an intensive surveillance in all 28,000 of its villages.
"Community health workers or accredited social health activists visited door to door to list potential cases and link them with team members to conduct screening on the following day," the WHO said.
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Significantly, following the success of the screening initiative, the state government carried a second phase.
"This intensive testing approach was instrumental in identifying many Covid-19 positive patients, making timely treatment and isolating the patients possible and this helped in keeping the virus far away from spreading," WHO said.
WHO participates in a range of government committees, which oversee health policy and implementation matters in Assam.
Some of the WHO's direct intervention include developing standard operating procedures and guidance on different initiatives.
"WHO has been continuously extending technical assistance to roll out different health programmes in Assam to strengthen the health system and realise the goals of UHC. Since the beginning of the Covid19 pandemic, WHO has been supporting state in different health initiatives to deliver quality health care services. The timely support of WHO has proved highly useful for the state," said Dr Dipjyoti Deka, state programme manager, Assam National Health Misson (NHM).
Interestingly, the Assam Government has also decided to withdraw all academic restrictions imposed in the state due to the Covid-19 pandemic from January 1.
