Pune launches COVID Free Village contest

The Omicron variant is spreading rapidly in the country. India reported around 2.5 lakh cases in 24 hours on Thursday. Maharashtra reported more than 46,000 new cases in 24 hours.

Various state governments are imposing night curfews and weekend lockdowns to control the spread of COVID-19.

In this situation, Pune District authorities launched a contest to control the transmission of Omicron. They launched Covid Free Village Contest on January 10. It will continue till March 15. This contest was announced for all villages and gram panchayats of the Pune district.

They issued guidelines for this contest. Three-best performing villages will be selected as per their performance and will be awarded cash prizes for the development of villages.

The performance will be measured on 22 parameters to manage COVID-19 effectively and curb its transmission.

Gram panchayats can earn one or two marks on the performance of each parameter. Some of the parameters include setting up a quarantine facility and an ambulance service to ferry Covid patients to Covid centres, administration of vaccines to all eligible people etc.

The cash prize for the best-performing village is ₹50 lakhs. The village that stands in second place will be awarded ₹25 lakhs, and the village in third place will receive ₹15 lakhs.

By announcing the contest, authorities want to focus on all villages to curb the transmission of Omicron. They would like to protect people in rural areas from it.

The district authorities said the contest had been announced to encourage villages to manage COVID-19 in a better way in rural areas. They added that police and health officials would support the villages in controlling the transmission of the Omicron variant.

They hope that this initiative will create awareness on Covid management among rural areas saying that this preventive measure will help protect numerous people from the fangs of the disease.

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