new delhi with covid19 now spreading to villages the centre on sunday issued new guidelines for containment of the virus in periurban and rural areas by enabling communities strengthening primary level healthcare infrastructure at all levels to intensify covid19 response while continuing to provide other essential health servicesthe centre also advised planning a minimum 30bed covid care centre in such areas for asymptomatic cases with comorbidities or mild cases where home isolation is not feasible besides provisions for rat testing should be made at all public health facilities including subcentres or health and wellness centres and primary health centresthe health ministry said with the larger spread of covid19 cases it is important to ensure that these areas are equipped and oriented to manage positive cases in every village active surveillance should be done for influenzalike illness severe acute respiratory infectionsilisari periodically by health workers the standard operating procedure issued by the ministry saidnoting that besides urban areas reporting a large number of cases a gradual ingress is now being seen in villages and tribal areas as well the ministry released the sop on covid19 containment and management in periurban rural tribal areas symptomatic cases can be triaged at village level by teleconsultation with the community health officer and cases with comorbidity or low oxygen saturation should be sent to higher centresnearly 8085 of covid 19 cases are asymptomatic mildly symptomatic these patients do not require hospitalisation and may be managed at home or in covid care isolation facilities the sop stated as monitoring of oxygen saturation is important for monitoring of covid patients it is desirable for each village to have adequate number of pulse oximeters and thermometers the sop recommended developing a system of providing pulse oximeters and thermometers on loan to families with a confirmed case of covid