Health professionals andworkers will spread out to villages in Aurangabad district of Maharashtra to check travel history of residents as part of efforts to check the spread of the novel coronavirus, an official said on Wednesday.Paramedical and anganwadi (rural child care centres) staff will perform this task which will start from Thursday, District collector Uday Choudhari told reporters here."People in rural areas hesitate to come forward if they have any health issue. Hence, our administration has decided to reach out to these residents."Anganwadi and other (health) staff have been assigned the job of door-to-door survey in villages and check whether their residents have a travel history (to countries affected by the virus)," he said."If any villager is found with symptoms similar to the coronavirus, the resident concerned will be sent to hospital for further medical investigation," the collector said."The swab sample of a lady, who had come in contact with a coronavirus positive patient, came in negative today. Reports of swab samples of the positive patients family members are awaited," he said.The state government has sanctioned Rs 2.5 crore to the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation to buy medical equipment and make adequate arrangements for treatment of suspected coronavirus patients, Choudhari said."It has also sanctioned a sum of Rs 1.5 crore to the Government Medical College and Hospital here," he added.
