Bhubaneswar: The state government Tuesday enhanced the retirement age of doctors from 62 to 65 to meet the burgeoning demand for doctors in view of the pandemic.
Retirement age of all doctors of Odisha Medical and Health Services (OMHS) cadres as well as allopathic insurance medical officers under labour & employees’ state insurance department has been raised from 62 to 65, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik announced.
Taking stock of the Covid situation in Khurda and Cuttack districts, Naveen said over 1 lakh migrants have returned to the two districts. In spite of the large influx, the situation is under control with recovery rate in Khurda at 70 per cent and in Cuttack at 71 per cent– much above the national average of 63 per cent.
“I appreciate the teams in both these districts for achieving higher recovery rates,” he said. . Naveen announced `15 crore each for the two districts from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund (CMRF) for Covid management. Besides, he sanctioned `20.64 crore from CMRF for running of dedicated Covid hospitals and Covid care centres for next three months.
He announced to set up a 150-bed (including 30 bed of ICU) dedicated Covid hospital by Aditya Ashwini Hospital in the capital city. Another special Covid hospital will come up in Nilanchal Hospital with 126 beds and 15 ICU beds within this week, he announced.
Similarly, 925 additional beds in Covid hospitals and Covid Care Centres are being established in Cuttack district.
The Chief Minister directed concerned officials to give special focus on slum areas in Bhubaneswar and congested areas in Cuttack to contain the spread of the virus. A special training and information centre for Covid-19 will be set up at SCB Medical College soon. The molecular genome lab in the medical college for viral and human host genome sequencing to predict the prognosis of Covid-19 patients will be upgraded.