Govt takes digital route to quickly respond to COVID-19 queries

By Jyoti Singh

New Delhi: In corona times, people have various doubts and queries regarding the disease and on coping with it.  To provide real-time responses to such doubts and queries from the general public, the Government of India has taken the digital route. Union Minister of Science and Technology, Health and Family Welfare and Earth Sciences, Dr Harsh Vardhan, launched an interactive platform called COVID INDIA SEVA.

People can post their queries to the COVID INDIA SEVA twitter handle for getting swift replies from the team of trained experts. This initiative is aimed at enabling transparent e-governance delivery at a large scale. Dr Harsh Vardhan in a tweet said that through this platform, trained experts will be able to share authoritative public health information swiftly at scale, helping to build a direct channel of communication with citizens. Commenting on the launch of the social handle, he said that Twitter has proved to be an essential service for both the government and citizens to interact and exchange information, especially in times of need.

Within 24 hours of the launch of this service, hundreds of queries landed on the twitter handle. Here is an example of a typical query: “Since coronavirus can survive on surfaces for hours, how do I clean surfaces the right way?” And the experts answered it in a very subtle way saying that first, clean dirt off of the surface. Then wipe the surface with disinfectant. Leave the surface wet with disinfectant for as many minutes as the product instructions require. The contact time with the disinfectant is what actually kills the germs. Several such queries are handled in a professional manner.

The responses by the experts will be available for everyone and users will not be required to share any personal details or health records on this account. The twitter handle for COVID INDIA SEVA is @CovidIndiaSeva.

(India Science Wire)