BALASORE: Minister of State for Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises Pratap Chandra Sarangi has suggested the district administration to provide pulse oximeters to ASHA workers to record oxygen levels of people as part of door-to-door health screening in their areas.
Speaking at a review meeting chaired by Collector K Sudarshan Chakrabarty on Tuesday, the Balasore MP said oximeter readings should be made part of health assessment. There are as many as 2014 ASHA workers in the district who provide door-to-door services.
Tourism Minister Jyoti Prakash Panigrahi, who also attended the meeting, suggested restricting movement of devotees into temples and prevent social gatherings. He stressed on use of masks and social distancing especially in crowded places.
The Collector also informed that the administration is doing its best to manage the situation. To cater to the sudden oxygen crisis, as many as 616 10-litre capacity and 428 46-litre capacity O2 cylinders are available in the district.
A helpline number 0678-2268830 is functional round-the-clock besides rapid response teams working in all 12 blocks and one team for Balasore town. This apart, 24 mobile health teams will operate at block-level to cater to the Covid situation.
District Planning Committee Chairman and Bhograi MLA Ananta Das, Jaleswar MLA Aswini Patra, Nilagiri MLA Sukanta Nayak and Sudhansu Sekhar Parida MLA of Remuna and officials were present in the meeting, among others.
The official report revealed that the district had reported a total of 1456 cases from April 1 till now. Of these, as many as 610 persons recovered and two have succumbed.
Balasore district now has 844 active cases. Total 78 fresh cases were reported in the district in the last 24 hours.