Fight Against Covid: Govt failing to engage people

Lack of instructions from government high-ups and coordination between different government bodies has left in a shambles the move to ensure community engagement in the fight against Covid-19.

The government had formed committees at the grassroots level across the country after the pandemic struck in March last year. The committees were supposed to work to make sure that people actively participate in health safety measures, including wearing masks, maintaining social distancing and keeping patients isolated.

Most of those committees, however, have remained inoperative since their formation because the government did not give much efforts to make them functional, The Daily Star has learned lately after talking to dozens of public representatives.

Health experts said Covid rules were being flouted in the absence of effective community engagement, causing the coronavirus situation to worsen every day.

They said the government also depended too much on administrative officials for the engagement, apparently ignoring the grassroots committees involving public representatives, different professionals and volunteers, and the decision did not help the cause much.

Pointing out that Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan, after a high-profile meeting on July 27, talked about going for an extensive community engagement right away, the experts said it would be nothing but “yet another popular rhetoric” without a community engagement framework in place.

“The government’s steps taken so far suggest that those holding leadership positions in different ministries and bureaucracy have no clear understanding about the field reality. As a result, the outcome of many efforts is very poor,” Dr Abu Zamil Faisel, member of the Epidemiology and Public Health Committee (EPHC) of the health directorate, told The Daily Star yesterday.

On March 10 last year, couple of days after the first Covid cases were detected in the country, the cabinet division formed an 11-member committee, headed by the deputy commissioner, in each district and a 10-member committee, led by the upazila nirbahi officer, in each upazila.

All other members of those committees were government officials while the local lawmakers or upazila chairmen were kept as advisors.

Six days later, the health and family welfare ministry formed a nine-member committee in each union, headed by the union chairman, for community engagement.

The three committees were asked to follow instructions from the 30-member National Committee on Covid-19 led by Health Minister Zahid Maleque.

But as the national committee itself did not function properly due to a lack of coordination between different government ministries, the other committees at the districts, upazilas and union failed to work as per the plan as well.

In a latest development, the health ministry issued a circular on July 25 saying committees have been reformed at union and ward levels to work on containing the virus.

While many union parishad authorities have reformed the committees as per the circular, many have not yet done it, this newspaper has learnt after talking to multiple chairmen yesterday.

Besides, none of those reformed committees has started working yet.

The Daily Star has talked with more than 80 union parishad chairmen and municipality mayors across the country recently. Almost all of them said the union level committees were not in function.

They said they have implemented a few campaigns after the committees were formed, with their own plan, but could not continue them due to a lack of coordination and support from the “centre”.

“We formed a committee as per government instructions last year. But as we did not get any further instruction or support, we could not function properly,” Md Aminul Islam, chairman of Annadanagar union parishad under Pirgachha Upazila in Rangpur, told The Daily Star.

“It was only recently that the UNO has asked us to reactivate our committee,” Aminul added.

Eight chairmen in Sylhet division echoed Aminul’s statement.

“We’ve heard that the government is planning to revive the committees, but we have not received any instructions in this regard yet,” Mamunur Rashid, chairman of Alinagar union parishad in Sylhet’s Beanibazar upazila, said recently.

Monoranjan Mondol, chairman of Batiaghata Sadar union in Khulna, told this newspaper, “We [union parishad] carried out routine work like distribution of relief materials amid the pandemic.”

Sohel Rana Ranu, panel mayor of Munshiganj municipality, said no committee was formed in his municipality area to prevent Covid-19 from spreading.

“The district administration engaged us in distributing relief materials. We did it only twice. We have no engagement with the district corona prevention committee,” Sohel Rana Ranu told The Daily Star.

Of the 61 unions in Kushtia district, the committees were formed in six unions, reports our correspondent in the district.

Mayors of different municipalities and chairmen in different union parishads in Dinajpur said they got no instruction on community engagement from high-ups.

“We try to do work as per our own plan. There is no coordination from the local administrations,” said Mahmudul Alam, mayor of Phulbari municipality in Dinajpur.

LEADING BY EXAMPLE

Chapainawabganj district and Savar upazila have succeeded in containing Covid-19 infection and deaths through extensive community engagement, said officials.

After Chapainawabganj became one of the hardest-hit bordering districts due to the Delta variant of the coronavirus, the district administration imposed lockdown and formed committees in all 45 unions with the local union chairman as chief to engage people in the Covid-19 fight. A 10-member volunteer committee in each ward was also formed on May 26.

Besides, the district administration assigned one government official to supervise the activities of the ward-level committees every day. The officials were drawn from various government departments.

Since the formation of those committees, the volunteers have been providing support to the local people in taking Covid-19 tests, treatment, and more importantly, campaigning to make people wear masks and follow other health rules.

The result is inspiring for others — the district now has a positivity rate of around seven percent from 63 percent in mid-May.

“If any poor person is infected, we give him or her Tk 500-1000 and our volunteers take care of the patient until they recover,” Tariqul Islam, chairman of Baliadanga union in the district, told The Daily Star.

Savar upazila health and family planning office, on the other hand, has mobilised around 4,500 active volunteers and representatives from different professional organisations as well as schools to successfully contain infections and deaths.

The upazila on the outskirts of the capital is home to around 70 lakh people.

“We ensured every medicine store has a pulse oximeter so that people can check their oxygen level easily. We engaged local youth clubs in supporting the people with symptoms,” Savar Upazila Health and Family Planning Officer Mohammed Shayemul Huda told The Daily Star.

He said they did not need additional funds for these activities.

“What we did was that we gave an identity card to each volunteer. And we regularly join their local campaign. This inspired them very much,” he added.

He said they also encouraged people to stay in isolation if they showed symptoms.

“We have got good results– we have only 54 deaths due to Covid-19 so far,” said Huda.

FRAMEWORK STILL AWAITING APPROVAL

On June 20, the EPHC of the DGHS submitted a draft Community Engagement Framework to Prof Meerjady Sabrina Flora, additional director general of the DGHS.

Since then, there has been no progress on finalising the draft.

“We are so busy responding to the daily issues related to Covid-19 that we could not manage time to work on it,” Prof Dr Nazmul Islam, line director of the DGHS, who was the convener of the nine-member technical group formed to prepare the draft, told The Daily Star.

He, however, said there was no alternative to implementing such frameworks to fight this pandemic as it would not be over soon.

While drafting the framework, the technical committee considered two things. One was a Yale University study in Bangladesh published on May 7 this year which stated that lockdown produces four times the benefit of mask distribution, but the economic cost is at least nine times higher.

Another was the experience in Savar Upazila.

The framework has 12 actions and involves elected representatives, particularly the local lawmakers, transport sector leaders, local businessmen, professionals such as doctors, teachers; social and religious leaders; and media people, etc.

An effective communication with the community to bring behaviour change particularly for mask wearing, treatment of patients, providing financial support to the vulnerable and removing misinformation, fear, anxiety, and stigma are the key actions in this regard.