Pointers –

• 65% of the country’s population lives in rural areas.
• A decentralized approach with participation of all stakeholders at the ground level is needed.
• Educate rural people with all the tools at our disposal — print, radio, the electronic media, and messages through mobile phones. 
• Give them accurate information in simple language.
• Induce behavioral changes.
• A systematic approach for COVID 19 – it must entail blocking urban-rural importations, quarantining those who move from red zone to green, diagnosing and managing clinical COVID-19 syndrome with or without positive PCR test results, and providing field hospitals exclusively for isolating and managing COVID-19 cases (manned by younger, and therefore less vulnerable, medical and nursing teams). 
• Identify and provide to the public, the information about non-covid hospitals.
• Make arrangements for home care.
• Use of telemedicine and telephone services.

Practice Question – The ‘healthcare accessibility’ divide between the urban and rural areas is very wide. Suggest measures to bridge this divide. – 150 words.