ISLAMABAD, Mar 28 (APP): With the country is in grip of the coronavirus’ third wave, the management of shelter homes strives to reinforce the anti- COVID-19 standard operating procedures (SOPs) for the dwellers, as well as, service providers’ safety.
“Hands-on trainings on the anti- COVID-19 SOPs are being given to the service providers performing duties at the ‘Panahgahs’ on regular basis.
They are communicating the health messages to its dwellers in a face to face interactions daily,” said Prime Minister’s Focal Person on Shelter Homes Naseem ur Rehman on Sunday.
Talking to APP, he said they were ensuring full implementation of all the SOPs including mask-wearing, sanitization, hand-washing and physical distancing at the shelter homes to ensure that the dwellers stayed safe during the third wave of coronavirus.
Medical supplies were also being provided to all the shelter homes every Thursday to ward off the risk of coronavirus outbreak at such crowded places, he noted.
He added that soap kits, sanitizers and masks were also being distributed among the visitors of ‘Panahgahs’ on regular basis to keep the virus at bay.
Besides, hand-washing booths were installed to make sure corona-free facilities.
Naseem said multiple initiatives had been taken to make the shelter homes clean and green places under the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Disinfection of all the facilities had been made sure to prevent the pandemic outbreak at those places, he added.
The focal person observed that the management of shelter homes was screening all the facilities for the coronavirus to ascertain the prevalence of infection in dwellers and service providers.
He said large size radios had also been installed at the shelter homes to convey the health messages to the residents directly. Special programmes were being broadcasted on the specific radio channels to enhance their awareness level against the contagion, he added.
Naseem also mentioned the tele-health initiative taken by the management in collaboration with private sector recently. Tele-health kiosks were fully functional at five ‘Panahgahs’ of the federal capital, providing free treatment to its dwellers with underlying conditions.
The focal person expressed the hope that 50 ‘Panahgahs’, operational across the country, would get the facility soon.
Explaining the way, Kiosks operated, he said the healthcare staff deputed at the ‘Panahgahs’ helped the residents feed their main vital signs in the kiosks after connecting them with the online available medical professional.
“Once connected, the patient gets an opportunity to have face to face interaction with the doctor so that he could fully explain his condition and avail prescription in printed form from the printing system attached with the kiosk,” he added.
To a query, he said the kiosk was designed by keeping the coronavirus standard operating procedures under the consideration to reduce the risk of virus outbreak at the facility. It had thermogun and sanitizer facilities as well, he added.