Bhubaneswar: Odisha government has tightened it’s belt as the number of Covid-19 cases is increasing due to rush of migrant workers to the State.

The Team Odisha for Covid-19 embarked on a massive mock drills to ascertain the preparedness at Covid hospitals.and Covid health centres following a series of training and capacity building programmes for the health workers.

” In this context, mock drills were organized at 2 places in Puri DCHC, Gopabandhu Ayurvedic Medical College and IDH, Puri. A full team of health functionaries and a group of volunteers participated in the drill” , said State spokesperson on Covid-19, Subrato Bagchi while adding that the Department of Health & Family Welfare has planned to conduct similar mock drills across the State at newly established COVID Hospitals.

The government has shifted it’s focus to Ganjam district which is receiving large number of migrant workers.
The team led by Director, Health Services, during visit to Ganjam district has focused on increase of testing capacity at MKCG Medical College & Hospital, Berhampur. Further, the team emphasised on establishing more number of COVID-19 treatment facilities, implementation of health protocols in the quarantine centres and surveillance in the buffer zones of Ganjam district.

The Housing & Urban Development Department, meanwhile, has instructed the Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) to ensure necessary arrangement in their quarantine centres/Temporary Medical Centres(Camps). Dedicated facility Management Teams have been engaged to ensure such arrangement.

In rural areas 14,563 Temporary Medical Centres/Camps have been readied in 6798 Gram Panchayats of the State. In all these Centres, total no. of 5,81,915 beds have been arranged to provide COVID-19 health services in rural areas.

The number of Covid-19 cases has crossed 400 marks Up by midnight of 11th May .The COVID-19 positive cases detected in last 24 hours are from quarantine centres. During this time over 65,000 samples have been test. While 3 persons have died, 446 are in hospital isolation.
Meanwhile, over 70,000 Odias have returned from other States.

Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra, Additional Chief Secretary, Health & Family Welfare Department, briefed the press about steps taken by government of Odisha for prevention of COVID-19.