Odisha seems to have succeeded in slowing down the spread of COVID-19 due to the vision of Chief Minister and timely and realistic measures taken by his Government to achieve zero community transmission.
It drew appreciation from the Centre for being among the top two States in containing and combating the pandemic efficiently.
Senior officials of the State said there is no room for complacency and they must remain in a state of preparedness for months to come.
According to the date of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, between April 12 and 18, Odisha and Kerala were the best-performing States as they took 34.12 days and 67.2 days, respectively, to double COVID-19 cases.
Odisha was the first state to have declared COVID-19 as a disaster and imposed lockdown.
“Way too early”, said State Government’s Chief Spokesperson on COVID-19 Subroto Bagchi on Wednesday. He said the Government as well as the people must remain alert for at least six months and strictly adhere to social distancing and norms of hygiene.
While the State has so far reported 82 positive cases, 30 of them have recovered and a 72- year-old man has succumbed
Mandatory steps like registration of foreign returnees, strict enforcement of lockdown guidelines, setting up of hundreds of quarantine and isolation centres, substantially increasing number of tests, establishment of dedicated hospitals for coronavirus patients in all districts have really mattered in checking spread of the virus, said an official.
The Government has also raised the corpus of the contingency fund five-fold to Rs 2,000 crore to meet the expenses required for battling out COVID-19.
Quarantine centres have been set up in all 6,798 gram panchayats Odisha. Each centre can accommodate 50-100 persons. A total of Rs 44.50 crore from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund to 30 districts for this, the Chief Minister said.
The Chief Minister also said that lakhs of people who are expected to return home post lockdown will have ve to undergo compulsory quarantine for 14 days. The Government will bear all the cost for their accommodation, food and treatment. An incentive of Rs 2,000 will also be provided on completionof the quarantine period, he said. He has announced to provide insurance cover of Rs 50 lakh and martyr’s respect to doctors in case of deaths during their fight against the virus.