BHUBANESWAR: With Odisha witnessing a nominal rise in Covid-19 cases, the State government has asked districts to initiate containment measures at railway stations and airports. Health Minister Naba Kishore Das has directed Additional Chief Secretary of Health department, RK Sharma, to ensure that special measures are put in place for Covid screening and surveillance is intensified.
“There is a spurt in new Covid cases in Delhi and some other northern and southern states. Since hundreds of people are returning from Delhi and other states by trains and flights, we must enhance the screening measures and get all symptomatic people tested,” he said.
The screening of passengers arriving at Biju Patnaik International Airport (BPIA) has been intensified and the use of masks has been made mandatory. The authorities of East Coast Railway (ECoR) have been asked to step up surveillance and screen travellers returning from states that are witnessing high cases.
Earlier, the Health and Family Welfare department had asked all collectors to prepare micro-planning and keep a tab on clusters. Apart from maintaining the daily testing target, they were advised to keep Covid beds ready to tackle the possible surge in infection.
Meanwhile, the fresh cases in the State rose to 18 in last 24 hours from seven a couple of days back. A maximum of seven new cases were reported from Khurda, followed by three from Nuapada and two each from Balasore and Sambalpur.
The test positivity rate stood at 0.06 per cent (pc) as 17,628 samples, including around 35 pc through RT-PCR, were tested during the 24-hour period. The active cases rose to 85 as only four patients recovered on Thursday.