Highlights
- In Odisha, as of May 7, 182 coronavirus cases have been reported
- The state started taking action to control the pandemic from March 22
- Odisha is the first state in India to have dedicated COVID-19 hospitals
New Delhi: Odisha with a population of more than 4 crores (as per census 2011), till date has managed to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus to some extent as far as the number of cases is concerned. As per Ministry of Health and Family Affairs, the state has reported 185 cases, of which, 2 people have been declared dead and 61 people have recovered, as of May 7. So, how did the state manage to keep the COVID-19 positive cases limited?
Here’s a look at how Odisha fought Coronavirus:
Early COVID-19 Steps Proved To Be Beneficial For Odisha
As per the Odisha government, the state took a series of steps at an early stage to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus and break the chain of infection as soon as the first case was reported in the state on March 16. By March 22, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik announced a lockdown of 40 per cent of the state, especially those areas which were affected by the virus and said that a strict lockdown will be observed for a week. This was three days before the nation-wide lockdown came into effect from March 25. Moreover, Odisha then became one of the first Indian state to further extent the lockdown to the entire state. Explaining the steps taken by the state in time to fight the battle against coronavirus, Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy said,
Apart from taking timely needed-action like enforcing the lockdown, Odisha was one of the first states in the country to come up with an online portal for COVID-19 pandemic and a toll-free number 104 urging people to register. Moreover, the Odisha government came with a unique initiative and started offering an incentive of Rs 15,000 to each person who registers with the State on coming from abroad and followed a self-quarantine guideline for 14-days. This was basically done to encourage more and more people.
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In Numbers: COVID-19 Action Plan In Odisha
Odisha became the first state 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 1000 dedicated beds facility for treating coronavirus patients in the state.
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These COVID-19 dedicated hospitals were made in mere 10 days with the required facilities. The funding for both these came from Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) and Mahanadi Coalfields Limited. Moreover, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik donated his three months’ salary to the Chief Minister Relief Fund to deal with the pandemic, added the spokesperson from the Chief Minister’s office.
According to the government data, since then, Odisha 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.
Government has been working round-the-clock to get the state’s healthcare infrastructure pandemic ready. Odisha drafted a plan to make a COVID-19 dedicated hospital in every district in the state and it successfully implemented the plan and became India’s first state to have a COVID-19 dedicated hospital in all its district, added the spokesperson.
The state has also put around 58,000 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.
Talking about the testing for coronavirus in Odisha, the spokesperson said,
Odisha has done 50,514 tests so far, and the testing count is increasing on a daily basis. The state has also ramped up the training of the manpower to tackle the coronavirus pandemic and the latest addition is the engagement of a large group of veterinarians who can man the testing labs. Recently, as many as 97 veterinary experts have undergone training conducted by Dr Panda and specialists from Regional Medical Research Centre, an ICMR institute for the same.
Odisha Has Also Got A Thumbs Up In Dealing With The Pandemic
Recently Odisha has also managed to get a thumbs up from World Health Organisation and UNESCO, as the team visited one of the COVID-19 special hospitals in the state and found that the hospital has been operating with 96 per cent of compliance with all parameters. Not just this, Odisha drew appreciation from the Centre for being among the top two states in containing and combating the COVID-19 pandemic efficiently.
According to the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare data for mid-April, Odisha and Kerala were tagged as the best- performing states in terms of the doubling rates of positive COVID-19 cases. While COVID-19 cases doubled in Kerala in 67.2 days, it was 34.12 days for Odisha.
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