Madurai leading the Covid battle

According to health officials, micromanagement, fortnight analysis and intensive testing have helped in bringing down the Covid cases.

For representational purposes

MADURAI: The ‘Madurai Model’ of Covid management has earned the praise of Chief Secretary K Shanmugam. Corporation sources said that the model could be emulated in other districts as well.

Earlier, ample number of patients with Influenza-Like-Illness (ILI) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARI) symptoms tested positive to the virus. The civic body, along with the district administration, established over 150 medical camps across the district for early detection of Covid cases. “We were able to identify most of the ILI cases through the camps. However, with the establishment of triage centres, several asymptomatic patients were detected with abnormalities at an earlier stage, thereby the mortality rate was lowered,” said Community Health Officer P Kumaragurubaran.

He said that mobile medical camps in wards with high number of cases have helped reduce the caseload. “A ward that once came under the ‘Top 10’ category with high number of cases never appeared in the list again,” he added.

The 1,400 workers, employed under ‘Consolidated Pay’ category in fever surveillance team, have now been deployed to track those entering the district using e-Pass, he added. It is to be noted that the Tamil Nadu government revoked the e-Pass system for intra-state travel from September 1.