BHUBANESWAR: The State government has reacted sharply to the concern flagged by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on the rise in new Covid cases and the drop in testing across Odisha.
Additional Chief Secretary of Health RK Sharma said Covid indicators in Odisha are better than the national average. While the State’s positivity rate is around 0.4 per cent (pc) against the national average of 1.1 per cent, Odisha is testing 4,542 samples per one lakh population compared to 2,685 in the country, he said.
Not only positivity rate, but the State’s position in terms of case fatality rate (CFR) is also better than the national average. The CFR is 0.8 per cent against the national rate of 1.3 per cent, he said and added the State government has already intensified surveillance of foreign returnees following the detection of several Omicron cases in other states of the country.
On Saturday, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan had shot off a letter to Sharma urging him to ramp up testing, take necessary steps to control the spread of the infection and reduce fatalities. Expressing concern over rising new cases and decline in testing across the State, he had stated that seven districts - Khurda, Dhenkanal, Kandhamal, Nabarangpur, Angul, Keonjhar and Balangir had witnessed a significant rise in fresh infections with Dhenkanal registering the highest 666.7 per cent increase in weekly caseload.
Director of Health Services Dr. Bijay Mohapatra said the Centre’s letter was about the last week’s situation and now it has improved in the districts. Dhenkanal had recorded 53 cases from a cluster, an educational institution. Khurda district, which used to report 150 to 200 cases a day, is now reporting less than 100 cases, he said.
Health authorities said testing had come down below 60,000 in the last few days due to inclement weather conditions. Districts have been alerted to maintain their testing target and step up surveillance in view of the arrival of international travellers, Mohapatra said. Meanwhile, the State reported 189 new cases including 25 in the 0-18 years age group and two fatalities taking the tally to 10,50,249 and the death toll to 8,422. The active cases stand at 2,101.