Bhubaneswar: Mandatory 14-day quarantine for those returning from abroad. Large number of tests and early restrictions on movement of people are among the reasons that seem to have helped slow down the spread of coronavirus in Odisha. The state, has recorded a doubling rate of 34.12 days for COVID-19 cases, the lowest after Kerala.
Odisha drew appreciation from the Centre for being among the top two states in containing and combating the COVID-19 pandemic efficiently. Senior officials of Odisha, however, say there is no room for complacency. They must remain in a state of preparedness for months to come.
According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare data between April 12 and 18, Odisha and Kerala have the best- performing doubling rates of positive COVID-19 cases. Kerala COVID-19 cases have doubled in Kerala in 67.2 days. Odisha was the first state to have declared COVID-19 as a disaster and imposed lockdown, a senior official said.
“Way too early”, said the Odisha government’s chief spokesperson on COVID-19, Subroto Bagchi. He maintained that the government as well as the people must remain alert for at least six months. The people must strictly adhere to social distancing and norms of hygiene.
Odisha has so far reported 83 cases. While 30 persons have recovered from the highly infectious disease, a 72- year-old man from Bhubaneswar died in the state. There was another death too of a man who had recovered from coronavirus. He however, had existing health conditions and succumbed to cancer.
There were many steps taken to contain the spread of coronavirus in Odisha. Among them were mandatory registration of foreign returnees and strict enforcement of lockdown guidelines. The government set up hundreds of quarantine centres, substantially increased number of tests and established dedicated hospitals for coronavirus patients in all districts, an official said.
The Odisha government has also raised the corpus of the contingency fund five-fold to Rs 2,000 crore to meet the expenses required during the battle against COVID-19.
The challenge before us is to achieve ‘zero transmission’ of COVID-19, National Health Mission (NHM) director Shalini Pandit said a couple of days back.
Odisha made it mandatory for people returning from abroad to register on the portal or through the helpline and stay in quarantine for 14 days. Around 5,000 people got themselves registered. The state government set up quarantine centres in each of the 6,798 gram panchayats in rural Odisha. Each centre can accommodate 50-100 persons. The government also released Rs 44.50 crore from Chief Minister’s Relief Fund to 30 districts for this.
Panchayat samitis and district authorities were asked to ensure that people returning from other states were put in 14-day quarantine. Around 60 hotels were roped in for providing quarantine facilities on payment in major urban centres, including Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Sambalpur and Puri, as part of measures to deal with the situation.
Agencies