Bhubaneswar: The Health and Family Welfare department Friday constituted a special Task Force to handle the issues relating to coronavirus.
“The department today formed a special Task Force headed by the Health Secretary. The task force will keep an eagle’s eye on the situation and will undertake timely intervention in the issue,” a statement from the department said.
The department also conducted a mock drill to create awareness on the issue and ways to mitigate the disease at the city airport. The drill was planned to pave way for preventing the spread of coronavirus in the state. Under the guidance of DMET professor CBK Mohanty, Public Health department Director Ajit Kumar Mohanty a mock drill was organised at the Biju Patnaik International Airport. The mock drill was conducted as per the government guidelines.
“Doctors present over there first tried to examine the suspected patients on the airport premises. As per the norms, the suspected patients were shifted to Capital Hospital under the government norms and shifted to a private isolation ward in the hospital,” the department said.
The department said that after physical examination the swab and blood samples of the person were taken for diagnosis and confirmation of the presence of the virus.
According to the Health department since January 15, the blood samples of four suspected persons returning from abroad had been sent to the National Institute of Virology, Pune for investigations. “They were also hosted in home isolation during their monitoring period.
A surveillance team of the department has been routinely following up with the suspected patients. The team will follow up with them for 14 more days,” it said.