BHUBANESWAR : Leader of Opposition in Odisha Assembly Pradipta Kumar Naik on Saturday urged Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to ramp up Covid testing facilities in Kalahandi and Nuapada districts which are witnessing an acute shortage of rapid antigen test kits.
Sending an SOS to the Chief Minister, Naik said coronavirus infections are rising exponentially and the situation in the two districts bordering Chhattisgarh is quite worsening as they are heading towards community transmission.
In a series of tweets, the senior BJP leader said the situation is getting out of control as more migrant workers are returning to their villages after lockdown imposed by Chhattisgarh on April 9. Testing of the migrants is not possible due to lack of facilities and test kits, he said.
Claiming that the district headquarters hospital at Bhawanipatna has the capacity to test only 25 patients a day while the CHCs are equipped to conduct testing of 10 persons, Naik said suspected Covid patients from the two districts are forced to visit Raipur in Chhattisgarh and Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh for RT-PCR test at their own expenses.
Naik requested the Chief Minister to direct the Health department to create adequate facilities with supply of more rapid antigen test kits in the two districts for timely testing failing which the situation will go out of control.