By Our Correspondent
BHUBANESWAR: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who has been desperately trying very hard and put all his machinery in State administration from Chief Secretary to Asha Workers to contain the spread of COVID-19, was on Tuesday stepped up his efforts and included the ongoing COVID-19 management under ‘Mo Sarkar’ program.
He said direct feedback from stakeholders will help the Government to further improve COVID-19 care in Odisha. Patnaik told the officials to keep families informed on the health status of COVID-19 patients.
The State Government on 2 October, 2019 had launched the ‘Mo Sarkar’ Program to take feedback from people on government offices, police stations and hospitals.
Patnaik said all ‘COVID Warriors’ must be properly trained on how to protect themselves against the highly infectious virus while dealing with patients and suspected cases. “The antigen test for COVID-19 is mandatory before any surgical intervention in all hospitals across the state,” Patnaik said.
In the absence of any proper medicine or vaccine against COVID-19, testing and identification of patients is important, Patnaik said, adding that three lakh COVID-19 tests, including one lakh alone in RMRC, Bhubaneswar, have been conducted so far.
According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare guidelines, mild and moderate COVID-19 patients will be treated in COVID Care Homes while severe and critical cases will be admitted in dedicated COVID Hospitals.
Noting that social distancing and face mask wearing is very essential to stop the spread of the virus, Patnaik told the director general of police to maintain “zero tolerance” towards offenders. Similarly, he also asked authorities to make government offices “Zero Infection Zones”.
Meanwhile, the state government has formed as many as 47,613 COVID care committees at the village level and their members are trained on how to handle such cases. Similarly, as many as 5,480 COVID Care Homes have been set up with 49,218 beds for treatment of mild and moderate patients, the official said.
In urban areas too, the government has formed 2,035 COVID Care Committees and made arrangements for 5,956 beds in different COVID Care Homes for the urban population. This apart, 818 TMCs with 58,988 beds have been arranged for people coming from other states, the official said.
