BHUBANESWAR: Amid a substantial rise in Covid-19 cases in Odisha, the state government has asked the districts, where the infection is rising, to intensify contact tracing and testing to curb further spread of the disease. The direction came following a sudden uptick in Covid cases in the last couple of days. The state recorded 68 new cases, up by around 28 per cent (pc) in the last 24 hours, pushing the active cases close to 300. The cases had doubled in a day - from 27 on Monday to 53 on Tuesday.
The Health and Family Welfare Department has revised the testing strategy to make it more targeted and prevent wasteful expenditure. Instead of enhancing the testing targets for districts for now, the department has asked districts with maximum Covid cases to test the contacts of Covid cases apart from the symptomatic people.
Director of public health Dr Niranjan Mishra said since people are reluctant for Covid testing, sometimes it is difficult for the districts to meet the targets. There is also no benefit in testing non-symptomatic cases which usually happens when the target is given.
“The testing will automatically increase if the districts intensify contact tracing and conduct tests of people who have come in contact with Covid patients. The number of testing has gone up to over 5,000 a day from a range of around 3,000 a month back,” he said. Health department sources said districts like Cuttack, Sundargarh, Nabarangpur, Khurda and Sambalpur have maximum Covid cases and the number of infections may go up further in the coming days.
“The TPR in the state now stands at 1.4 pc as compared to the national average of 3.3 pc. Odisha is testing 108 samples in a million population in comparison to 97 at a national level. That does not mean we will be complacent. People, especially those with comorbidities, will have to follow Covid appropriate behaviour,” Dr Mishra said.
Though the government has no plans to make face masks mandatory, health officials advised people to use masks in crowded places and practice hand hygiene as part of precautionary measures. Meanwhile, as many as 21 patients recovered in the last 24 hours.