Bhubaneswar: The Odisha chief minister, Naveen Patnaik, Tuesday said, “We have to reactivate all our protocols and make the entire machinery work with enthusiasm and vigour.” He was reviewing the Covid-19 management in the State at a high-level meeting, held here today.
Payback said, many states of the country are witnessing spikes in proliferation of the disease. Odisha has been observing an increasing trend in the virus spread in recent weeks.
“We have been able to successfully control the first wave of Covid in spite of a challenging situation when the nature of the virus was unknown. We are now battle hardened and I am sure we will be able to successfully tackle this resurgence of the virus infection.”
“Currently, the virus spread seem to be mainly concentrated in the districts adjoining the Chhattisgarh border. I would urge the Chief Secretary, ACS Health and Family Welfare and Senior officials concerned to visit the Western Odisha districts with high incidence of the Covid Positive cases and make an on the ground assessment and take suitable urgent action.”
He directed the health department to immediately redeploy doctors, paramedics, lab technicians to Western Odisha districts to strengthen the manpower required to fight the virus. There should be sufficient hospital capacity to take care of the increasing cases. Adequate ambulances with oxygen supply to be deployed in the highly affected areas and proper monitoring systems to be put in place to ensure that any emergency call is addressed timely and with a sense of urgency and sensitivity. There should be no complaints about non-responsiveness of ambulances or lack of beds in the hospitals.
The CM directed the DGP to deploy the police personnel in large numbers across the State in a 10-day drive to strictly enforce the Covid Safety protocols as notified.
I&PR department should start a new awareness campaign to sensitise the citizens to follow norms of face mask, hand hygiene and social distancing.
Collectors should involve all sections of the society including the PRI Members, Mission Shakti groups, etc. and ensure awareness and enforcement.
The CM appealed all the people of Odisha to be alert and follow the norms and please cooperate with the enforcement machinery stating, “There is no place for complacency as valuable lives are at stake.”
