The chief minister described the health department's initiative, encompassing ASHA (accredited social health activist) workers and community volunteers, as a tool for early detection and testing of coronavirus. The new mobile application aimed at undertaking house to house surveillance to contain the spread of COVID-19.

The entire rural and urban population of Punjab above 30 years of age shall be surveyed as part of the drive, which will also cover persons below the age of 30 having co-morbidity or influenza-like illness.
The survey would capture full medical conditions of a person for the previous one week and complete details of his/her co-morbidity.

This would help the state develop an extremely important database to further plan its COVID containment strategy and make targeted interventions for the community. The user-friendly app had been developed and designed in-house by the health department, and field tested in Patiala and Mansa.

Around 4.88 per cent of the people surveyed have been found to be hypertensive, 2.23 per cent diabetic, 0.14 per cent having kidney disease, 0.64 per cent with heart disease, 0.13 per cent having TB and 0.13 per cent having cancer.
The ASHA workers and community volunteers will be paid Rs 4 per head incentive/honorarium for every person surveyed and shall cover 500 households. A supervisor will oversee the work of ASHA and community volunteers, and would be engaged on a voluntary basis for Rs 5,000 per month.