Udaipur : Poha ,Upma or Aloo parantha with sprouts for breakfast, Lauki or Palak cooked in dal , rice and chapatis with green salad, biscuits and melon/mangoes, tea, milk or even coffee—that’s the diet of the coronavirus infected patients in the Parda Chundawat COVID care center at Sabla block, some 60 kilometers away from the district headquarters. They have aerobics and yoga sessions for physical fitness while light music, bhajans, patriotic songs are played to keep their moods lifted.
The Dungarpur administration is making all efforts to ensure the well-being of the expatriates in their care here. With a capacity of holding 112 people, the care center is a TAD hostel building, presently having 10 asymptomatic corona infected patients residing here. District collector Kanaram had chalked out the diet plan after consulting professional dietitian and nutritionist. The breakfast, served at around 7 am, includes either of these including poha, daliya, aloo parantha, upma, sprouts, boiled chickpea with tea or milk. The lunch served between 12 to 1pm includes chappathi, rice, dal with curry. The patients are served tea and snacks (biscuits/ banana or any seasonal fruit) at 3:30pm, followed by dinner between 8 to 9 pm comprising vegetable, rice and chapatis. Apart from the scheduled menu, the inmates have the liberty to request for any special item and acceding to their demands, sweets, halwa kheer etc have been served to them.
” Each block has a COVID care center to care for cases that have been clinically assigned as mild ones as they are asymptomatic. In the Sabla center, all the inmates are expatriates who have returned from Maharashtra, Gujarat cities. Along with their physical health, we have to ensure their mental wellness too because they are prone to mood swings and short temperament” says SDM Manish Faujdar, incharge of the care center. Initially, the center was a quarantine facility which was transformed into one step of a higher level after the state government instructed each block to have a COVID care center for asymptomatic positive cases.
” We faced difficulties in the initial days to convince our team as many of them were hesitant and thought it risky to serve positive cases but then we held a counselling session for the employees and removed the misconceptions and myths related to corona. Then they finally agreed to work here, presently there is a team of around 15 staff looking after the patients” the SDM said. Even the inmates were not all in good mood when they were put here as they threw tantrums, refused to participate in Yoga and aerobics etc.
” We understood their mental condition as it was stressful after realizing that they were infected. We adopted music therapy to boost their spirits. They are woken up in the morning with soothing bhajans while in the afternoon they get to hear classic songs from superhit movies. In the evening Bhajans and light music, patriotic songs keep them occupied” Faujdar said. The counselors who visit here daily too have reported improvement in the behavior as the inmates are no longer irritable. According to ADM KrishnaPal Singh Chouhan, there are 69 quarantine centers, 7 COVID care centers, 2 COVID health centers and 1 COVID dedicated district hospital in Dungarpur which have braving the sudden spike in cases after receiving a heavy inflow of migrant workers from the neighboring states.