BHUBANESWAR: Even as the Covid re-curve continues to grow steeper in the State with areas bordering Chhattisgarh becoming hotspots and fuelling the second wave, the State government on Friday appeared to attribute the situation to the Road Safety World Series T-20 championship that was held in Raipur recently.Minister of State for Home Dibya Shankar Mishra said western Odisha has become the major contributor to the rising caseload.
The cricket matches, which were played by veteran stars like Sachin Tendulkar and Pathan brothers, could be one of the reasons behind the rise as large number of people from the bordering districts went and watched the torunament that was played from March 5 to 21 at Raipur, he said.
The Minister said surveillance along border routes connecting Chhattisgarh has been intensified. All vehicles coming to Odisha from Chhattisgarh via border routes in Nuapada are being thoroughly checked and thermal screening of commuters conducted to ensure compliance of Covid norms.
Meanwhile, Jharsuguda administration announced closure of village haats for three weeks while State reported 461 new cases, the highest daily number in the last four months.Five western Odisha districts - Nuapada, Sundargarh, Bargarh, Kalahandi and Jharsuguda - contributed around 50 per cent of the new cases apart from Khurda and Cuttack, where cluster outbreaks in educational institutions have emerged as a big challenge.
Of the fresh cases reported from 24 districts, maximum 86 infections were detected in Nuapada, followed by 69 in Khurda, 62 in Sundargarh, 36 in Kalahandi, 32 in Bargarh, 27 in Angul, 22 in Cuttack, 16 each in Balasore and Sambalpur and 13 in Jharsuguda.The test positivity rate rose to 1.5 per cent pushing the active cases to 2,368. The State has conducted 30,716 tests during the last 24 hours. With this the tally soared to 3,41,772 of which 3,37,212 have recovered and 1,921 succumbed.
Jharsuguda Collector Saroj Kumar Samal said there will be no weekly haat in the district for the next three weeks. “Daily markets at different locations dealing in vegetables and non-vegetarian food items will be dispersed over multiple locations,” he said and urged people to co-operate in furthering the fight against resurgence of Covid-19.
The rapid spike in new cases has prompted the State Government to step up measures and ramp up health infrastructure. Additional Chief Secretary of Health PK Mohapatra directed collectors, municipal commissioners and CDMOs to keep required numbers of beds with oxygen facilities in DHH and MCH ready for immediate use of patients besides the isolation beds in ICU, HDU, dialysis and labour room.
“Taking note of the rapid surge of Covid cases, private hospitals have also been asked to be prepared for immediate use at short notice. Adequate stock of medicine like Favipiravir and Remdesivir will be maintained at district level to meet the demand. Districts have been advised to increase vaccination in high burden areas on a war footing,” he added.
