BHUBANESWAR: Alarmed over the fast rise in Omicron cases in the State, Odisha Government on Monday asked the expert committee of the health department to decide the line of treatment for the new Covid variant.
Health and Family Welfare Minister Naba Kishore Das, who chaired a review meeting of top health officials on the action plan to combat the infectious strain, said the State is yet to receive any guideline from the Centre for treatment of Omicron patients.
“As we haven’t received any guidelines from the Centre, I have asked the expert committee to work out the line of treatment for the new variant,” Das told mediapersons after the meeting.
Odisha’s Omicron tally jumped to 37 after detection of 23 cases of the new strain, the highest so far on a single day, on Sunday. Twelve of these cases are also said to be local infections with no definite travel history or any direct contact with any foreign returnee.
The Minister said the State is fully prepared to tackle the new strain of the virus. “Focus is on surveillance through genome sequencing to detect such cases. Apart from the Institute of Life Sciences, steps are being taken to create more laboratories for genome sequencing of samples,” he said.
With the State witnessing a rapid surge in Covid cases in the last two days, the Health Minister assured that there won’t be a shortage of oxygen at any cost in the event of the outbreak of a third wave.
No Central guidelines, State to plan Omicron treatment
Over 800 cases of Covid-19 were detected in Odisha in the last 48 hours. The State logged 424 confirmed infections in the last 24 hours. Khurda district reported the highest 151 cases followed by 66 in Cuttack.
The Minister, however, said the State has 5,311 general beds, 1,374 ICU and HDU beds and 624 ventilators. He said focus is also on pediatric care for which provision of 1,178 beds for children has been made across health facilities. Of this, 937 are general beds, while 242 are ICU beds and 110 ventilators. “If required more number of beds will be created,” the Minister said. He also said that the government has asked all the district collectors and municipal commissioners to keep a close eye on the situation.