IDAK active in fighting COVID-19.

Affected families provided with ration, food

The Indian Dentists’ Alliance in Kuwait (IDAK) – a fellowship of Indian dentist’s residing in Kuwait – has exerted tremendous efforts to provide relief to those affected with the virus and is assisting the Ministry of Health to contain the pandemic, says a press release issued by IDAK. At the KGL camp in Mahboula IDAK supplied cooked food and dry rations to the families that were most affected.

The aid also included food packets, each with 5 kilos of rice, 2 liters oil, 1 kilo sugar, 5 kilos flour, 2 kilos pulses, 2 kilos onions and 2 kilos potatoes to more than 2,600 families most of whom were on the verge of hunger. IDAK President Dr Rajesh Alexander said relief efforts began as early as mid-April, even before the lockdown was imposed. Supplies were distributed mainly among taxi drivers, maids, barbers and other marginal workers, whose livelihood was greatly affected by the corona pandemic as most of them were left with no source of income.

He went on to say IDAK was involved in packing the essential kits at School Oral Health Program (SOHP) headquarters Salmiya as the pandemic spread rapidly, many of the quarantine centers were getting overwhelmed and IDAK was permitted to provide supplies to some of the centers which primarily catered to the Indian patients. IDAK also distributed cooked food packets, drinking water bottles and personal hygiene kits in the camps where most of the infected people were isolated.

IDAK General- Secretary, Dr Jacob Lonappan said, “With the support of our volunteers, IDAK was able to distribute about 6,650 food packets, about 6,000 bottles of drinking water and about 550 personal hygiene kits to the select quarantine centers”. In the early days of the outbreak, up to 80 percent of the COVID-19 cases in Kuwait were among Indians. Contact tracing is an essential public health measure that is vital in reducing the spread of the disease.

MoH reached out to IDAK to assist them in conducting contact tracing of COVID- 19 positive Indian patients. IDAK then partnered with the Indian Doctors Forum (IDF) and carried out contact tracing from April 10 to June 30. Dr Jitendra Ariga and Dr Roy Francis, from the School Oral Health Program and Dr Jagan Baskaradoss, from Kuwait University led the team of around 60 volunteers for contact tracing.

Dr Jitendra said, “Contact tracing was successfully completed for 1,360 COVID-19 positive Indians and we were able to identify around 6,350 contacts. Through this effort, IDAK was able to identify several hotspots of disease communication and notify the MoH on a daily basis.” IDAK continues its relief and humanitarian aid to the Indian community in Kuwait who are affected by this pandemic.

Source- Arab Times.

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