Health status of employees and family members monitored via WhatsApp groups
To prevent police personnel who are in close contact with the public from contracting coronavirus infection, Prakasam police have taken various measures, including a special WhatsApp group to monitor the health of the department’s staff and their families .
A significant number of police officers contract the infection as part of the duty sickness, including enforcing the current curfew to control the spread of the virus. Prakasam SP Siddharth Kaushal said that elaborated guidelines had been issued for police stations, staff and their family members. The preventive measures include “Police Family Self Health Groups” (PFSHGs) with the concept “All for one, all for all”.
As part of the initiative, WhatsApp groups were set up with employees and family members to monitor their health by locking doctors in and promoting COVID-safe behavior.
Random call
“The COVID Family Welfare Desk randomly calls 50 employees every day and monitors their health. The latest updates related to the infection and various posts on information, education and communication activities will be shared among members of the WhatsApp group, ”said Kaushal.
In addition to pros and cons, it also shares videos, infographics, vaccination sites, COVID-designated hospitals, and details of available hospital beds. Group members are made aware of healthy eating, nutritional supplements, life-saving medication, etc. The success stories are also being shared among SHFG members to help them manage the pandemic crisis.
COVID safe behavior
The SP also calls the staff and speaks to their family members. As the SP Level 1 Mentor, the SP highlighted the need to follow the Dasha Sutras and Pancha Sutras, a set of guidelines for COVID-safe behavior that must be followed by staff on both work and home.
More than 150 family members of police officers are infected with the virus, and nine of them are in critical condition.
Daily status report
Based on the SP, 16 Level 1 Mentors, including additional SPs, interact with police personnel and their family members within 66 police station boundaries across the district. Fourteen deputy SPs were appointed as node officers to monitor the health of 3,600 police officers in the district on a daily basis and to prepare a daily status report.
During his hurricane visit to the busy intersections in Ongole on Sunday, Mr Kaushal said the curfew was producing a good result in the form of a reduced number of new infections.