THE GOAN NETWORK
PANAJI
Under fire for efficacy of the strategy, the Goa government is set to launch its community health survey on Monday by which it hopes to profile the State's populace with respect to travel history and symptoms of the dreaded Coronavirus infection.
Thousands of booth-level officers (BLOs), teachers, anganwadi workers and gram sevaks are expected to fan out to homes in cities, towns and villages in teams of four to list out the health condition and travel history of evey member in each household.
The controversial survey has drawn severe criticism from Opposition parties including the Congress, the Goa Forward Party and the Aam Aadmi Party besides civil society, who question the scientific logic and purpose of the survey.
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, however, insists that the survey and the data collated will help the government plan its post-lockdown strategy to tackle the thread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A task normally shouldered by trained health workers and medical professionals, opponents of the survey have questioned the administration for entrusting the job to teachers and other workforce unsuitable for the task.
The administration on its part has held training sessions over the last couple of days which again drew severe criticism for failing to maintain social distancing discipline.
Opposition leader, Digambar Kamat has repeatedly demanded that the survey be scrapped and the government instead work on upping the Coronavirus testing numbers.
Sawant has insisted that the survey aims to pinpoint people who returned to Goa from abroad or other States and those who may manifest symptoms such as flu and fever.
"The data collated will be assessed by the health department," Sawant had said, adding that the field workers will use mobile geo-tagging technology for the survey.
The survey will also record whether anyone in the family is suffering from diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, kidney disease or respiratory disease and may also record the age of the family members.
The government has sought the cooperation of the general public in order to get valid data to further help in curbing Covid-19.
