Centre deputes high-level team to Odisha as Covid cases surge
BHUBANESWAR: The Centre has deputed a high-level team of experts to Odisha to assess the Covid-19 situation and suggest remedial actions. Odisha is among six states that have been reporting a high number of Covid cases for the past few days.
A two-member Central team, comprising a clinician and public health expert and a public health specialist at All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health (AIIH&PH) Dr A Dan will visit different worst-hit districts in the State.
Sources said as an ongoing effort to strengthen efforts of various States for Covid management, the Centre has been deputing Central teams from time to time to visit various States/UTs.
The team expected to arrive in Odisha in the next couple of days will monitor the overall implementation of Covid-19 management, especially in testing, surveillance and containment operations besides Covid appropriate behaviour and its enforcement.
The team will also review the availability of hospital beds, sufficient logistics including ambulances, ventilators, medical oxygen and the progress of vaccination.
The health officials deputed to Odisha will interact with the State authorities and get a first-hand understanding of the challenges and issues being faced by them so as to strengthen their ongoing activities and remove bottlenecks, if any.
The team besides helping the State government with containment measures will submit a detailed report to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on the steps taken to contain the spread of the disease and prevent deaths.
Other states where the multi-disciplinary teams have been sent are Kerala, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Chhattisgarh and Manipur.
Meanwhile, Odisha reported 3,222 new Covid-19 cases and added 46 more deaths in the last 24 hours taking the tally to 9,16,109 and death toll 4,109.
Nine of the fatalities were reported from Khurda district, four each from Puri, Sundargarh and Nayagarh and three deaths each from Cuttack, Dhenkanal, Ganjam, Kendrapara and Sambalpur.
Of the new cases, 1,838 were in quarantine and the rest 1,384 were local contact cases. After a surge in new cases for a few days in Khurda and Balasore, the fresh cases rose by nearly 40% in a day in Cuttack district that recorded 619 infections, the highest among all districts, followed by Khurda (422), Jagatsinghpur (212), and Balasore (208).
As many as 74,225 samples were tested during the period and the test positivity rate stood at 4.34%. The State has 30,950 active cases now.