BHUBANESWAR: As Covid cases continue to surge, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to go for ward-level monitoring and surveillance to protect persons with comorbidities from contracting the virus.
Municipal Commissioner Vijay Amruta Kulange said ward-level awareness programmes will be taken up involving community participation, while monitoring will also be improved to ensure that Covid norms are followed, especially by the households and families having members with comorbidities.
With over 200 new cases a day, the Covid infection count in the State Capital has started to surge at an alarming rate. The Capital city reported over 228 new cases, in the last 24 hours, 18 more than the previous day. Patia, Nayapalli and Khandagiri have remained the hotspots with a maximum number of cases being reported from these places.
While 74 cases have been detected in Patia in the last 48 hours, Nayapalli and Khahandagiri reported 34 and 33 cases respectively. The Municipal Commissioner, however, said the situation is not alarming as the hospitalisation of infected patients continues to remain low.
The current patient load in SUM DCH is only 22 against the active caseload of over 835, he said. The Commissioner also said the infection count has gone up mostly due to symptom-based tests. Kulange said the testing will be ramped up further to detect and isolate symptomatic patients immediately to curb transmission.
“The average testing figure which is around 1,600 in recent days will be increased to 3,000 in the coming days. The RTPCR which is around 700 a day will also be increased,” he said.