Bhubaneswar: With a continuous spike in novel coronavirus cases in Khurda and Cuttack, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Thursday directed concerned officials to strengthen the COVID management strategy for these two districts.
Though the state’s COVID situation is much better than the national level, the management strategy for Khurda and Cuttack need to be revised as the cases are going up, he said while holding a high-level review meeting through video conferencing mode.
He said that 2 million people have been tested in the state so far. The testing rate in the state is 42,404 per million people, which is much higher than the national average. The recovery rate was also 76.78 per cent and the death rate was 0.46 per cent in the state.
The monsoon rains, floods and resumption of public transport have created challenges for the management of the COVID in the state. “In view of these challenges, we need to implement a cohesive strategy,” he said.
In view of the possibility of diseases like colds and coughs during the monsoon season, the Chief Minister has asked to keep a close eye on all these symptoms. He advised to keep all fever clinics alert in both public and private sectors.
The Health and Information & Public Relations departments asked to launch an awareness campaign on various COVID protocols immediately.
Naveen also suggested setting up ICU beds at a hospital at district-level for critically ill COVID patients and directed concerned officials to ensure that very serious patients get access to ICU facilities.
The CM directed all government officials to strictly abide by all the COVID rules like the number of COVID cases is on the rise among government employees, especially in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar.