Bhubaneswar: If the current trend continues, Odisha’s Covid positivity rate is likely to witness a drastic slump in the next 10 days, Additional Chief Secretary to Health and Family Welfare (H&FW) department Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra said Sunday.
“The Covid positivity rate in Odisha has come down to 14 per cent in spite of the tests going up after cyclone Yaas. If the current trend continues, we hope the positivity rate will decrease further in the next 10 days,” Mohapatra pointed out.
The senior IAS officer said that except for Andhra Pradesh, neighbouring states like Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand have been witnessing a decline in daily Covid cases. The positivity rate in 19 districts has come down significantly. The Covid situation in Odisha is much better than in other states, he said.
Mohapatra said that there is no shortage of hospital beds and oxygen as the occupancy of general and intensive care unit (ICU) beds are also declining. “Around 86 per cent of active cases are being treated at home. There was a higher occupancy of beds in the initial days of May. However, now only 46 per cent of the general and 72 per cent of ICU beds are occupied,” he said, adding that Odisha has not faced shortage of any Covid drugs like Remdesivir.
He pointed out that in a bid to ensure treatment of black fungus (mucormycosis), the state government has requested drugs from the Centre and has been receiving the same. “The availability of drugs to treat black fungus in the state is likely to improve in the next week,” he said.
Mohapatra said that around 25 cases of black fungus have been reported from the state and out of these, three persons lost their lives. He attributed these deaths to reasons other than mucormycosis.
In the last few weeks, Odisha has sent 25,000 MT of medical oxygen to 18 states facing acute shortage of the life saving-gas to treat Covid patients, the senior official also pointed out.
PNN