Volunteer Area Manager
Dhaka, Bangladesh
The Community Support Team (CST) intervention is continuing operations in Dhaka North City Corporation and Dhaka South City Corporation.Through the CST programme, people are able to call a COVID-19 hotline (333) to receive a preliminaryscreening over the phone. When someone reports symptoms that match with COVID-19, or exposure toa person with a probable or confirmed COVID-19 case triggers the CST volunteers to do a home visit, in accordance with strict safety protocols, to further assess symptoms. A suspected case, or “potential virus fighter” (PVF), becomes a “verified virus fighter” (VVF) based on a syndromic diagnosis of symptoms. VVFs are then offered essential vitamins and over-the-counter medicines to support isolation of the entire household for 14 days. VVFs are also connected to medical experts via dedicated telemedicine support and are referred to hospitals in the case of severe or critical disease. Community Support Team (CST) is an initiative FAO lead by Director General of Health Services (DGHS), in partnership with FAO, UNFPA, UNICEF, WFP, BRAC, CMED, a2i, Platform, Dhaka North and South City Corporations, and other NGOs and volunteer organizations, and was originally piloted for two weeks in Dhaka and Khulna in April 2020 as a proof of concept. The funding from the World Bank helps to support in scaling up this life-saving initiative, in addition to funding received through other donor organizations.
