Bhubaneswar: The Odisha chief minister Tuesday said the State is going to change its strategy in fighting the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We have to restrategise our response based on new learnings so that we are ahead of the pandemic and at the same time bring normalcy in economic and livelihood activities”, said Patnaik.
The chief minister said, “With opening up of flights and railways the coming 15 days to a month will be more challenging but I am sure we will handle the same in a professional manner with a human face.”
The chief minister reviwed the measures taken to fight Covid pandemic in the State, here on Tuesday. The chief secretary Asit Tripathy and health additional chief secretary Pradipta Mohapatra.
“We are now two months into lockdown. There are many learning points in these two months both scientific, social and administrative. Our learnings on the behavior of virus in India and more particularly in Odisha has given us hope that with strict social distancing, wearing masks and repeated hand washing we should be able to successfully contain the spread of pandemic. Also our learning is that vulnerable population need extra care, elderly persons, people with comorbid conditions etc. So I would suggest that we plan a fortnight of serious awareness creation in all the above mentioned points.”
Patnaik asserted that social distancing is not social boycotting. Stating that a combination of awareness creation coupled with strict action is required, he said this would also be a target for this week.
“Testing has to be smart to take care of our frontline workers and vulnerable population”, Patnaik said adding, “I am happy to know that we are one of the leading states in testing in the country and that we could establish decentralized testing facilities in every part of the state.”
“We have tuned our basic mandatory quarantine period on par with ICMR recommendations. At the same time empowered collectors to further extend institutional quarantine on a need based manner in the overall interest of containing COVID spread.”
TMCs at GP level are doing a great job in
containing the spread, the chief minister said adding, ” As much as 95 percent of our positive cases are from quarantine centers. This shows the robustness of our system and the efforts put by Sarpanches, peoples representatives and the entire government machinery from top to bottom cutting across departments, he pointed out while appreciating the roles played by Covid-19 warriors.
“The humane work done by police in ensuring Zero Walking Inside Odisha is praise worthy. Good job done.”
“My special appreciation for all those who handled Covid-19 on one hand and a super cyclone on the other hand and ensured zero casualty, restored road connectivity in 24 hours and power connectivity in 48 hours”, Patnaik said while expressing his gratitude to the people of Odisha for their support to the government.
