BHUBANESWAR: After drawing flak from various quarters over its poor response to emergency calls, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has resumed its round-the-clock Covid helpline service in the city.
BMC officials said the 1929 Bhubaneswar helpline, which was working 24 x 7 in three shifts till June 28, has been reintroduced with better response and consultation facilities.
The helpline, which was operating round-the-clock from March 19 to June 28, remained inoperative from June 29 to July 15 and later started functioning from morning 8 am to 10 pm in two shifts.
BMC officials, however, said the call centre didn’t function for a period in July due to drop in positive cases. Later, when the centre was made functional in two shifts has made 30,643 outgoing calls and handled 2,533 incoming calls till September 6.
The round-the-clock call centre has been resumed in view of the major spike in the positive cases in the recent days, they said and added that the centre will handle all queries related to Covid-19, information service, counselling by trained psychologists and psychiatrists as well as medical and health advice and grievance redressal.
The State Capital has reported 376 new cases in the last 24 hours, pushing the Covid-19 tally to 14,065. The Covid death toll also increased to 50 with one more fatality in this period. Besides, 420 persons, infected with the virus, were also recovered on the day.