BHUBANESWAR: A day after the Centre asked the states to ease additional Covid curbs, Odisha government on Thursday said it was reviewing the situation district-wise and will soon come out with a revised guideline. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had written to the states asking to amend or end additional restrictions imposed as the pandemic is showing a sustained declining trend since January 21.
Director of Health Services Dr Bijay Mohapatra said Odisha is treading cautiously as it is too early to say anything definite on the Covid-19 pandemic becoming an endemic.“The rural polls are going on in the State and the restrictions have already been relaxed following a steady decline in new cases. It is unlikely that the existing curbs will be lifted till the elections are over. But there will be a revised guideline for March,” he said.
The Health Director claimed the State now has the advantage of enhanced surveillance and infrastructure to fight any further waves. The wait and watch mode will be on till March-end, though, he added.Meanwhile, the new Covid-19 cases remained below 1,000 mark for the fourth consecutive day on Thursday with 886 people testing positive in last 24 hours. The fatalities also dropped to 16 and the test positivity rate below 1.5 per cent (pc) during the period.
Barring Sambalpur, which recorded 179 cases, all other districts reported less than 100 cases each. The recoveries outnumbered the fresh cases pushing the rate of recovery close to 99 pc. The active cases stood at 8,664 after recovery of 1,639 patients.