In view of the impending third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, all steps are being taken by the State Government to handle it effectively, said Health Services Director Dr Bijay Mohapatra on Wednesday.
Tracing, testing and surveillance would be intensified to prevent any wave of the pandemic. For this purpose, the Government has decided to set up 14 more RT-PCR laboratories in the State to facilitate and speed up testing, Mohapatra said. “The people having Covid symptoms won’t have to visit far off places to get them tested for the infections. All the districts in the State will have dedicated and sophisticated testing centres. We would speed up testing in the coming days,” he added. “Moreover, appropriate treatment to critical patients is another strategy to check a pandemic. The Government has made elaborate arrangements for all these things before the arrival of the next wave of Covid-19,” he added.
Besides, priority is being given to vaccination. The pace of inoculation is being expedited as per the availability of vaccines in the State, Speaking on casualties, he said the figures provided by the Health Department are based on old audited reports. The real figures on the rate of fatality can only be ascertained after the end of the pandemic.