COVID Response – 2nd Wave
SVYM’s Comprehensive COVID19 Response Strategy
Collaboration
297
Emergency care services to rural & tribal
315
Institutional deliveries
0 Maternal Deaths
347
Surgeries conducted
SVYM COVID-19 Response
Reach Map
SVYM’s COVID-19 2nd Wave
Response Timeline
SVYM’s Multi-pronged Response to COVID-19 Second Wave – Activity Report
Home Based COVID-19 Care
Home Based Care for Mild & Asymptomatic patients with COVID-19 in rural & urban areas
Early intervention to reduce adverse outcomes
Responding to the sudden spike in COVID-19 cases in rural areas, SVYM rolled out home based care to ensure early detection, timely treatment and supportive care thereby reducing the number of cases needing tertiary care and burdening hospitals already under stress.
IMPACT STORY
1650 Individuals with COVID-19 were provided Home Based Care in rural, tribal & semi-urban areas of Mysuru, H.D. Kote, Bengaluru, Hassan & Dharwad
Joint rural families, higher transmission risks
4 month & 70 year old positive in a family of 14 defeat COVID-19
As the first positive COVID-19 case in Tagalihosalli village in Orohalli Gram Panchayat in Bengaluru rural, the 14 member family was scared and clueless about how it happened!
First, an elderly lady (70 year old) tested positive. She had expressed her discomfort to ASHA workers who in turn contacted SVYM Home Based Care team. SVYM team immediately isolated the elderly woman and counselled other family members to get tested and follow COVID-19 appropriate precautions. RT PCR test results showed 3 more members were positive. The youngest member (4 months old) being one of them.
Fortunately, the mother tested negative. SVYM Doctor advised her to tend and nurse the baby while following all precautionary measures. Both were moved to her native house and personally supervised by the doctor.
Being a big family, home isolation and reducing the risk of transmission required the team to counsel each member individually and keep their morals high.
Constant follow ups and collaborative efforts of ASHA & SVYM teams supported the family through the crisis.
After 2 months, the baby and the other members of the family including 70 year old grandmother are healthy. The eligible members vaccinated.
SVYM Home Care team visits the family
Home Based COVID-19 Care
Home Based Care for Mild & Asymptomatic patients with COVID-19 in rural & urban areas
Strengthening Home Based Covid Care
- Coping with the Oxygen crisis with oxygen concentrators
- Reaching the remote and unreachable thru doorstep delivery
- Facilitating Post COVID-19 recovery care at home
- Telecalling for continuous support & follow up with patients & caregivers
- Supporting & strengthening Govt Public Health Centres
District-wise distribution of O2 Concentrators
318 Individuals with COVID-19 and the ones in post COVID recovery phase have availed oxygen support thru the Home Based Oxygen Concentrators (Till 15th July)
Collaborating for greater reach
10 O2 Concentrators delivered to Mysuru SP 2 Office. Former Mysuru SP Shri C B Ryshyanth & SVYM’s CSO Shri Praveen Kumar S were present during the event
15 O2 Concentrators delivered to Challakere PHC, 2 Chitradurga District, MLA Shri Raghuram, Dr. Gowthami from SVYM & other Health Dept. Officials were present
Training SVYM teams to setup Oxygen Concentrators
SVYM teams were trained to install oxygen concentrators & monitor patient’s health using oximeter & thermometer. To ensure preparedness, Basic Life Support training given to 19 team members in Mysuru by JeevaRaksha Trust, SVYM’s joint initiative with RGUHS for emergency care training
Mysuru
Dharwad
Dotting the ‘i’ in COVID-19 Care
Addressing the gaps in skill sets in COVID-19 Care
In the month of May, SVYM team received a call from Holenarasipura village in Hassan Taluk for Oxygen
Concentrator support.
Being an emergency case, to save time, the family member requested the oxygen concentrator to be delivered to a relative in K R Nagar. Our teams being trained in installing oxygen concentrators and checking and monitoring the health of the COVID-19 patient offered to provide support despite the distance. To this, the family member assured the team they would take help from a nurse from a near-by Primary Health Care Centre.
Soon the family member called again informing the system was not working and the patient was finding it
difficult to breathe. Our team member immediately requested a video call to inspect the system and found
Dotting the ‘i’ in COVID-19 Care Addressing the gaps in skill sets in COVID-19 Care the pipes wrongly connected. The pipes were reconnected and the team stayed online til the patient showed signs of normal breathing again.
Next day, the SVYM team personally visited the patient to monitor his condition. The team also requested the family to call the nurse who had installed the oxygen concentrator. In a polite manner, the nurse was shown the correct method to install the concentrator.
Preventive Measures – COVID-19 Vaccination
Vaccination drive focusing on the vulnerable communities
Setting an example
SVYM’s Founder & President Dr. Balasubramaniam was one of the first three persons to get Covishield vaccine after the launch of the largest vaccination drive at the Trauma Care Centre at PKTB Hospital, Mysuru. “I think it’s a historic day and I volunteered to take the vaccine to remove concerns and build confidence among all doctors.” he spoke.
Role model gram panchayat for vaccination
2853 People including elderly & PwDs were vaccinated in 11 villages in Orohalli Gram Panchayat. 90% of the eligible panchayat residents are vaccinated with 1 dose of vaccine. This community is a role model for COVID- 19 preparedness for other rural communities.
Protecting everyone
Facilitating COVID-19 vaccination of 29500+ PwDs with 1st dose and 14800+ PwDs with 2nd dose along with their caretakers through home visits, counselling & transport.
Breaking the chain
Taking the vaccination drive to remote tribal hamlets abutting the forest, solar powered mobile refrigerators preserved the vaccine vials allowing greater reach.
Vaccination Camps with Government collaboration
SVYM with the Taluk Health Administration undertook COVID-19 vaccination camps during April – September 2021 along with collaboration from the Forest Department.
A total of 7,825 vaccinations were administered
IMPACT STORY
A novel approach for a local challenge
Tackling vaccine hesitancy in indigenous tribal communities
During the first wave, geographic remoteness shielded indigenous forest based tribal communities living in H D Kote in Mysuru District with just one instance of a COVID-19 positive case reported by SVYM. However, the second wave stirred panic and fear with the death of 4 tribals in a short period of time. Our strategic team decided to respond immediately and contain the spread posing risk to 21,000 people.
Our efforts to conduct COVID-19 awareness & testing drives were met with reluctance and taking an extreme step, in their own right, the tribals barred entry of any outsiders into their hamlets by erecting barricades.
Decades of working with tribal communities, leveraging trust built over years, turned out to be an effective way to start a conversation with an empathetic & nonprescriptive tone.
On 10 June, SVYM invited 45 tribal leaders to meet at their community centre. Building a contextually appropriate discussion that lasted for nearly 2 hours, the tribal heads shared their concerns & learned about the facts and myths related to COVID-19 vaccination from doctors at Vivekananda Memorial Hospital.
The leaders after getting convinced agreed to be vaccinated first, to set a trend for other tribals to follow. On 20th June, 2 tribal leaders took their first vaccination in the presence of Senior Govt. authorities, media and the local community at Vivekananda Memorial Hospital.
The event was followed by a second communication in the form of video messages of tribal leaders urging their communities to get vaccinated to combat vaccine hesitancy.
Subsequently, a large-scale vaccination drive was conducted in the tribal communities, taking the National Vaccination Drive to the last mile.
Meeting with 45 tribal leaders to overcome vaccine hesitancy