New Delhi: Earlier in May, Odisha was slowly getting recognition as one of the Indian states that have managed to curb the spread of coronavirus to some extent as the state with a population of more than 4 crores (as per census 2011), had reported 185 cases (as of May 8). But in the past few days, the state has seen a sudden spike in COVID-19 cases. As of June 2, Odisha has reported 2,104 coronavirus cases, of which, 1,245 people have recovered and 7 have been reported dead, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Amid the growing cases of coronavirus, the state on Monday (June 1) announced ‘weekend shutdown’ measure for the month in 11 out of its 30 districts, anticipating that people might venture out in large numbers as the Centre has started to ease lockdown curbs.
Sharing details of the initiative, Chief Secretary A K Tripathy said that the state government has also prohibited all sorts of public congregations across the state till month-end. Further highlighting what restrictions are still being followed across the state, Mr Tripathy added,
Educational institutions, including schools, colleges, coaching centres, will remain closed till the end of July, while places of worship will be shut for devotees up to June 30. Similarly, shopping malls, cinema halls, swimming pools and gyms will also remain closed till June-end. Hotels, however, will be allowed to reopen with just 30 per cent occupancy, but their restaurants will be operating only for in-house requirements. Moreover, the two-day weekend shutdown would be implemented in Bolangir, Nayagarh and nine coastal districts, including Khurda, Cuttack, Puri, Kendrapara and Balasore, in view of “high-case load” in these places.
All activities in the 11 districts in two-days shutdown will remain suspended on these two days, barring supply of essential services.
Timeline Of Actions Take By Odisha To Fight COVID-19
Odisha was one of the first states to come up with India’s first COVID-19 special hospitals. As per the government, on March 27, Odisha signed two MoUs with city-based hospitals Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences and one with SUM Medical College for a combined 1,000 dedicated beds facility for treating coronavirus patients in the state.
According to the government data, since the first case has been reported in Odisha on March 16, the state has been able to come up with 34 COVID-19 specialised hospitals with 5,493 beds and 296 ICU beds with the adequate facilities to treat the coronavirus patients especially and 15 testing laboratories have been created for sample testing. Moreover, the government has been working round-the-clock to get the state’s healthcare infrastructure pandemic ready. Odisha is the only Indian state to have COVID-19 dedicated hospital in every district in the state.
As per the COVID-19 dashboard data, uploaded at the state government official site, Odisha has done 1,59,567 tests and has also put more than 57,000 people in quarantine to break the chain of the infection, of which, 53,000 people have completed the quarantine phase and around 4,000 are still under state government’s surveillance.
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