Bhubaneswar: The state government Sunday said that a total of 211 COVID Warriors from Cuttack district contracted the viral infection in line of duty.
Saurabh Garg, Agriculture department Secretary and COVID Observer for Cuttack Sunday held a press conference and provided the details to the media.
He said that out of the 211 infected COVID Warriors, only 38 cases are active now “In Cuttack district, we have 1,614 cases till now. 612 cases are from Cuttack city and rest are from other parts of the district. A total of 211 COVID warriors have also tested positive in the district. 38 such cases are active,” he added.
He said that the total bed capacity in the district to cater to healthcare needs of COVID patients in the district, except Cuttack city, is 6,500.
“This includes 373 COVID Care Homes with bed capacity of 4,000 and Cluster Temporary Medical Centres with 2,500 beds,” he highlighted.
The officer also said that the COVID Care Homes in panchayats need volunteers and urged the cured Covid patients to come for-ward.
“Volunteers are needed to manage the COVID Care Homes in panchayats which can host up to 10-12 persons. I would like to urge the cured Covid patients to come forward and volunteer for this.” The Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) Commissioner Ananya Das meanwhile said that the civic body has increased the testing in the area and also plans to rope in antigen test for public. “Between July 19 and 24, we received a total of 264 new Covid 19 cases. Almost 71 per cent had contacts with previous positive patients. Our frontline workers are giving the list of ILI and SARI cases detected through field visits to the PHC. Every day, we are getting the list and sending them to testing,” she said.
She added, “We had earlier two mobile sampling units, which we have planned to increase to four. Focus would be on the vulnerable population like kids, elderly and pregnant women for testing. Besides, door-to-door survey, we are also testing fever patients in hospitals using antigen tests.” Das said that earlier CMC con-ducted antigen tests only for hospitals but later it was also used in areas like Malgodown to screen patients and treat them timely. The officials added that the city has now three COVID Care Centres and is likely to add two more such centres soon.