Mr Himanta Biswa Sarma, Health Minister, Government of Assam, felicitated the World Health Organization (WHO) field team working in the state along with other COVID-19 warriors for their critical support to the pandemic response. Among those present were senior officials from the state’s health and family welfare department, district administration officials, and families of health staff who had died on duty.
WHO has been providing technical assistance to Assam government for COVID-19 management, including developing Standard Operating Procedures (SoPs) and guidance notes on various government initiatives; sharing of global and national COVID-19 updates and guidelines; training of COVID warriors; and providing supportive supervision and review of the implementation processes since March 2020, when several states started reporting cases across the country.
WHO field teams stewarded state-specific community and targeted surveillance programmes, and reviewed and guided COVID-19 response activities in flooded areas and remote tea gardens. State officials were also assisted in data management and field reviews of infection prevention and control in COVID care hospitals.
When Covid-19 cases began shooting up after the easing of the nationwide lockdown on 17 May 2020, Assam took steps to rapidly scale up testing, tracing and treatment. The state launched the Assam Community Surveillance Plan (ACSP) in May to conduct active community surveillance to identify fever and SARI (Severe Acute Respiratory Infections) and ILI (Influenza like Illness) in all the villages and wards of Assam, but found few cases in the general population.
With cases rising in people without any travel history or contact with a COVID-19 positive case among workers from vulnerable sites such as interstate truck/bus terminals, dhabas (small roadside eateries), petrol pumps, hotels, garages, and police and health staff, ACSP 2.0 was launched as Assam Targeted Surveillance Plan (ATSP). Termed Nischayata (Assurance), ATSP focused on aggressive testing among vulnerable groups in potential hotspots, such as transport hubs, markets, interstate truck and bus terminals, and parking lots for early diagnosis, isolation and treatment.
All arrivals to the state were tested for COVID-19, and while those who tested negative were asked to observe strict home quarantine for 14-days, those who were positive were isolated in dedicated COVID-19 hospitals. This policy proved effective, with majority of new cases being reported from quarantine centres.
“I consider myself blessed and privileged that during the COVID-19 pandemic, I could work closely with team members in carrying out multiple activities such as awareness generation, contact tracing, training and mentoring frontline workers under Nischayata, and support the health and district administration of Karimganj district of Assam,” said Ms Bhararti Bhowmik, 31, a COVID-19 warrior and district community mobilizer from Karimganj District, Assam.
Apart from that, the WHO team has been capturing success stories and best practices from other states and countries for replication in the local context, documenting COVID-19 management and drafting technical briefs. The COVID-19 work has been over and above the team’s continuing support for maintaining essential health services.
“The support being provided by WHO through its North East sub-regional office in Guwahati has been enormous and invaluable. The qualitative inputs and insights on the global evolution of the pandemic from WHO served as critical guidance for developing and implementing many of our impactful programmes to contain and treat COVID-19. We hope to come out victorious in the battle with COVID-19 with the help of WHO, along with the world,” said Dr Lakshmanan S, IAS Mission Director-NHM, Assam.
Other areas of support included activating a strong primary health care network for surveillance, strict quarantine and effective case management, which contributed to improved recovery rates.
“My dream of a life, which was almost fading away due to COVID-19, was gifted by the expert health care team. I am thankful to each one of them for doing their best to save me. The health system strengthening efforts of the Government of Assam has been yielding results in the form of saving many lives,” said Mr Sumit Roy, a COVID-19 survivor from the Karimganj district of Assam.
The WHO field teams also been guiding the state government in the resumption and continuation of essential services in Immunization, vaccine-preventable disease surveillance, TB elimination, and comprehensive primary care with the state.