One thing that the 2nd wave of COVID has taught us is that the rural areas are as much vulnerable to this deadly pandemic as their urban counterparts. Adding to their woes is the sparse health care infrastructure in these areas and very little support coming in from non-government agencies.

All of us at the forefront experiencing the 2nd wave of the pandemic agree on the need to reach out deep into the rural areas and support our fellow citizens at their hour of need in an unfortunate case of the 3rd wave….

That is why we are tapping two critical resources to increase our reach into the rural areas – People & Technology. The trained ASHA team with their wide network and acceptance at the grass-root level with assistance from an out/in bound tele-calling set up is a formidable combination to take on the deadly pandemic.

It is a two-pronged approach to reach out to people living in the villages and provide them access to the much-needed relief when affected by the dreaded disease –

• Out-calling home quarantined patients: Based on the database of the home quarantined patients received from the office of the Taluka Medical Officer, the team at NeevJivan outcalls the patients seeking information based on a pre-approved questionnaire and in case the symptoms are serious in nature, the patients are “red flagged” and the information is passed on to the ASHA members of the respective village.

    The trained ASHA team members meet the patients at their home and basis the condition of the patient, recommend movement to the nearest           hospital / Covid Care Center or advise them to continue with the home quarantine and monitor them on a regular basis.

• In-bound calling for counselling: In addition to this, #Project Samvedana (a volunteering initiative comprising of doctors from all over the world to create COVID awareness) has set up a tele-counselling platform for the benefit of ASHA team members and local doctors. The later can now call 7669622046 for any advice pertaining to COVID related cases being handled by them (e.g. Prevention, Early Intervention, Home Management, Post Covid Management, Vaccination Advice & Mental Health) and seek guidance.

    The ASHA team is also being trained by #ProjectSamvedana on subjects like pediatric COVID, Post COVID treatment, Myths of Vaccination and             general COVID protocols.

We hope that with this setup in place, we will be able to reach out to the far-flung areas in Jawhar taluka and help the villagers in need in case of an unfortunate scenario of the 3rd wave of the pandemic.