One year since the novel coronavirus sneaked into Odisha and triggered the pandemic, Additional Chief Secretary of Health and Family Welfare department Pradipta Mohapatra speaks to TNIE on the strategies adopted to tackle the crisis and the way ahead.
Odisha completes a year of dealing with an unprecedented once-in-a-century global health crisis. What did it learn from the pandemic?
The pandemic has been a great learning experience. From devising strategies to deal with the never-seen-before health crisis to mobilising resources, ramping up the healthcare system to creating awareness, provisioning treatment and initiating control and containment measures, everything had to be done from a scratch.
Today, a year after, we can say, Odisha has dealt with the crisis very effectively. We now have a robust health system with trained personnel and infrastructure to tackle future occurrences. We are in a state of readiness to handle handle any resurgence and prepared for any unforeseen situation.
What were the major decisions that helped the government manage the crisis?
Early initiation of the public health response, lockdown (Odisha was the first state to do so), establishment and prompt expansion of dedicated Covid health facilities, effective governance and evidence-based decision making besides effective surveillance were some of the decisions taken on time. Majority of decisions taken are based on the technical information, evidence or opinion of experts from WHO, UN and ICMR etc. Covid Regulation Act was implemented as early as March 18, 2020. The hands-on leadership of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, strategic guidance from Chief Secretary, good team work and coordination of all collectors, doctors and health officials and the Covid warriors worked on all fronts making the mammoth task possible.
As the Chief Minister warns people not to lower their guard amid the threats of second wave, what step the Health department is taking to prevent the resurgence of the virus?
We have enhanced surveillance and testing. Necessary instruction has been issued all districts, cities and towns. One Special Secretary has been assigned the responsibility to monitor the screening and testing. We have distributed the districts under six senior health officials and doctors to monitor and provide mentoring support as and when required. RT-PCR test of samples of all suspects and travellers from affected states at the point of arrival has been ordered.
Odisha is one of the top five states having highest vaccination coverage. Is there any plan to further ramp up the drive?
Keeping in mind the harsh summer conditions, instructions have been issued to cover at least one lakh beneficiaries per day so that we can finish vaccination of all elderly by May 15. The more quickly we build up the immunity of the community, it would be helpful to prevent further resurgence.