Ahmedabad police are gearing up to safeguard the health of all its personnel in the event of a possible third wave of Covid-19. Sources said the readiness among the cops this time will be of a different level.
The police department is installing health surveillance systems so that every cop on duty is checked every day, Joint Commissioner of Police Ajay Kumar Chaudhary said. The equipment is being set up at 70 locations, including the police commissionerate, all police stations in Ahmedabad, DGP’s office, offices of all DCPs, ACPs along with the CM’s residence in Gandhinagar.
“We are installing Tele Healthcare Surveillance Systems that can check six health parameters in a moment. The idea is to nip the virus in the bud as soon as symptoms emerge,” JCP Chaudhary told Mirror.
Police have teamed up with an NGO headed by a senior scientist Ragesh Shah whose team will set up and maintain the system. One person from the NGO will be present at each of the 70 locations to monitor the equipment with day to day inputs.
Health parameters that will be checked include oxygen levels, pulse, blood pressure, blood sugar, ECG and temperature of the cops as soon as they enter the police station. This will be part of the daily health check-up for cops in keeping with WHO standards. “Cardiogram, ECG, blood pressure, diabetes, pulse oximeter, scanning, temperature and thermal screening will be done for the personnel,” Chaudhary said.
“Cops will be scanned when they report for duty and also each time they go to the field and report back to the police station. Besides, every visitor to all the 70 locations will also be scanned,” he said.
As soon as a police personnel exhibits symptoms, doctors including MD physicians, pulmonologists and experts will be provided his/her full health parameters online and medicines will be prescribed through telemedicine network. The medicines will be available at all 70 locations.
Ragesh Shah, chairman and senior scientist at NGO Online Telemedicine Research Institute (OTRI), who has been researching on SARS for the past 30 years, said, “Besides equipment, a scanner will be vital during the third wave. The new virus bypasses the Delta variant in RTPCR, and the accuracy of RTPCR which is 85-90% otherwise drops to only 50% if the new variant B.1.X, that has already spread in Europe and US, reaches the city.”
“The only way to detect the new variant is through scanning. Scanner will play a vital role in case of the new variant and telemedicine is the only way in which immediate treatment can be given to those diagnosed with symptoms. I have advised VVIPs not to meet a group of five persons and completely avoid meeting groups of 10 persons,” Shah said.
