BHUBANESWAR: With Bhubaneswar emerging as COVID-19 hotspot in Odisha, the state government on Friday announced that tests of at least 5000 samples collected from different locations in the city will be conducted over the next seven days.
Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy said testing facilities in the Capital and different regions in the State are being ramped up to increase the capacity of handling more samples per day.
As 46 positive cases, including the one from West Bengal, have been reported in Bhubaneswar alone, Khurda has figured among the 123 hotspot districts in the country.
Of 7577 samples tested in the State so far, 1958 samples have been collected from Bhubaneswar. Apart from Khurda, though eight other districts have recorded positive cases, the number is significantly low.
"The number of samples tested in the city is about 38 per cent (pc) of the total samples tested in Odisha and around 2.4 pc people have been found to be positive. Keeping that in mind we have decided to go for the test of 5000 more samples in the next one week," he said.
The decision was taken after studying the pattern of positivity in cities like New Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai and other North and Southern pockets where the number of cases are more. "If we can manage to conduct the tests as planned, it will be a great initiative as no city has been able to conduct so many tests per one million or for that matter per one lakh population,” Tripathy said.
In order to carry out the tests and tackle COVID menace in the city, the State Government has chalked out a master plan 'Bhubaneswar Strategy'. The city has been decided into three zones and two senior bureaucrats have been entrusted with responsibilities of testing and strict containment measures.
Modalities for collection of samples and testing have been prepared on a priority basis. While static camps will be set up at different locations, microbiologists and technicians will move around the city in mobile vans to collect samples.
People with foreign travel history, symptoms, primary contacts, severe acute respiratory illness, doctors and health workers exposed to COVID patients and those who have come from domestic hotspots and fail to maintain social distancing have been put under Category I.
While other health professionals, service providers like police, sanitary workers and others deployed in COVID hospitals come under Category II, elderly people, aged 60 or above and with comorbidities have been categorised at No. III. Random sampling comes under Category IV.
"We have arranged more number of real-time PCR machines and imparted training to microbiologists and technicians to conduct the tests. Apart from testing of samples, we would also look into the epidemiological study of COVID-19 in the city,” Tripathy informed.
Although restrictions have been lifted in two COVID-19 containment zones in Bhubaneswar, active surveillance, contact tracing and house to house surveys are being carried out in the rest three zones where more number of cases were reported.
Expressing displeasure that some people in containment zones are not cooperating with the medical teams, the Chief Secretary urged people to come forward for testing to make the city safe and secure. "Action as per law will be taken to get the tests done if people do not cooperate," he warned.
Meanwhile, the State Government has also made spitting in the public a compoundable offence. People have to pay a fine of Rs 200 each for the first three offences and they will be charged Rs 500 for spitting in public places. It will be enforced by additional tahasildar, block extension officer, and ASI of police at block level besides the municipality ward officer.