Monitoring patients, vaccine duty: Civil defence volunteers don multiple hats

Lalit Goyal, Deputy Commissioner Warden, Civil Defence, Shahdara district, added, “Volunteers are also deployed at Covid care centres created in hospitals, and at containment zones. They counsel those under home isolation and also collect details of patients and submit them to the district magistrates concerned.”

Goyal said volunteers also conducted a door-to-door infection survey when cases increased: “They were part of surveillance teams and visited homes to check if anyone has a cold or cough and if they got tested.”

The job, however, comes with its fair share of challenges. Volunteers said they often face aggressive behaviour from patients under home isolation and people in public places.

Shivani Dhawan (27), who is on monitoring duty at a containment zone in Shahdara’s Shrestha Vihar, said, “People get angry when we tell them they have tested positive and we are to stay outside their house to help them. Some people have been kind, giving me a chair to sit. But I mostly stand for 5-6 hours… we also go buy groceries and other essential items for those in quarantine.”

Himanshu. Express

While women volunteers on containment duty work the morning shift (6 am to 2 pm), men work from 2 pm to 10 pm.

Neeraj, who is on home isolation duty at a dispensary in Begumpur, said: “I start my shift at 9.30 am and work till 6 pm. First, we get a list of positive patients and call them to confirm their address and phone number. We keep a check on those under home isolation for 14 days till they recover. The same day, our team also visits patients at home to give them medicines and oximeters.”

Neeraj has visited more than 300 houses and interacted with hundreds of patients. Before this, he was deployed at a vaccination and testing centre. He has been on Covid duty since April 2021.

Himanshu, also on home isolation duty at Begumpur, added: “I accompany patients to hospitals and collect their details, which I provide to the district authority. The biggest challenge is that many don’t cooperate and behave aggressively. There have been cases of people giving us the wrong address and switching off their phones.”

Manisha Saxena, principal secretary, health department, said civil defence volunteers have become an important pillar of the administration system: “They are performing brilliantly, I think they are the largest force deployed in district magistrate offices.”

Before the Covid outbreak, a large number of volunteers were deployed as marshals in public buses to ensure safety of women. CDVs were also roped in during the government’s ‘red light on, gaadi off’ anti-pollution campaign.