ECS and CBLT volunteers arranging the 100-bedded COVID Care Centre in Tuensang. The COVID Care Centre has been set up by the volunteers along with the Task Force, Churches, and community leaders.
ECS initiates flu surveillance in three districts
Vishü Rita Krocha
Kohima | June 18
Home isolation for COVID-19 patients in rural areas comes with unparalleled challenges. “The government has a policy this time about home isolation for positive people. But rural people especially in Tuensang and Mon, many of us share toilets. 10-15 people live in one kitchen and one room and so, sealing the house and home isolation is actually like a good space for co-infections to happen,” Rev Dr Chingmak Chang notes.
This is when the Eleutheros Christian Society (ECS) came up with the idea of appointing paid volunteers for flu surveillance in 3 districts namely Mon, Tuensang and Noklak. Having come up with the plan with 2-3 things in mind, Rev Dr Chingmak Chang relates to The Morung Express that “one is to get people with flu sooner than later.”
Terming this as a targeted kind of approach, he says, “The volunteers will go and identify people with flu and very early on, segregate them in the home itself and the volunteer keeps track of the quarantine and then eventually motivate them for COVID test.”
Secondly, he says, “it is also with the idea of training volunteers so they become a major investment for us and for the district because we are talking of a third wave, which might be equally worse or even more dangerous.”
In this regard, he observes that “now people are getting vaccinated and those who have recovered from COVID will have some resistance and so, it leaves out the children and the old and vulnerable.” So, we thought it’s a good investment, he says. The third idea was to generate awareness through these volunteers and also make it less complicated for people in the rural areas.
“People don’t have smartphones to register on their phone for vaccination,” he points out. This is where the volunteers come in.
Some of them are already on the job while others are gradually being trained. There will be one volunteer in every sector, colony or ward in Mon, Noklak and Shamator respectively while there will be 40 volunteers in Tuensang.
This, he explains, “is because there is some kind of cluster spread (in Tuensang) and we wanted to break those chains as soon as possible. The sooner we break the chain, the better it is.”
They are also looking at these volunteers as trainers. “We are trying to train the ASHA workers, to take swab samples, to use oximeters- know when saturations are really low. These volunteers have to know what the different stages of COVID are. They have to fully understand so that when they are keeping track they know when they should shift out,” he further highlights.
Simultaneously, they have set up a 100-bedded COVID Care Centre in Tuensang along with the Task Force, Churches, and Community Leaders. “Many people do not have attached toilets, and private space which are safe…so we had this ready much ahead of time, so that we segregate them in the community and the volunteers encourage them for testing and then we put them in the centre,” he says. Along with the District Task Force, they are further setting up a 70-bedded COVID Care Centre in Mon.
Stating that it is a very intricate network between the volunteers, the community COVID care centre and the COVID hospital, he states that “I just feel Nagaland is such a small State, and if the government invests in this network, I think we can easily control the problem.”
He adds, “It is not very complicated because everyone knows everyone. So, it’s easier in that way.” However, he also emphasizes that it would need the cooperation of the church, community, ward leaders, and everyone. “So, we try to make it as far as possible, a community effort, rather than ECS effort,” he articulates.
The ECS is also tying up with a lot of funders to have oxygen concentrators even in the remote areas wherein some funders have come forward to ensure the facility.
One of the concerns, he further shares, is how people continue to visit each other even when homes are being sealed. “The neighbours come and we joke and we laugh, and that’s probably how the cluster infections are happening,” he observes.
The other thing is the infections among daily wage earners. In this regard, the ECS is providing them food so that they are not worried, while simultaneously trying to raise support for children of those parents in COVID Care Centres. Rev Dr Chingmak Chang also acknowledges that this is being funded by FES (Foundation for Ecological Security).
