For Delhi health volunteers, the fight is twofold: virus and its stigma
The Hindu
ASHAs and CDVs providing care to patients in home isolation often face hostility
The Omicron variant of COVID-19 may be relatively milder than its more devastating predecessors but the efforts to tackle its spread have by no means been easier.
It’s not just the high transmissibility of the virus that bothers the Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) and the civil defence volunteers (CDVs), who are at the front lines of the city’s fight against the virus. The volunteers say they have to face “rudeness and hostility” of patients as well as their family members in most cases.
The work of the ASHAs and CDVs has become more important given their role in forming home isolation teams that help in creating strict micro-containment zones, which is the most effective weapon in the administration’s arsenal against Omicron. “Micro-containment and strict perimeter control are of utmost importance given the transmissibility of the Omicron variant,” a senior government official said. “While more and more containment zones have been chalked out, deployment of teams on the ground has also been increased to ensure stricter perimeter control,” the officialsaid.