City has served 10k packets of cooked food to quarantine homes since pandemic began
Bhubaneswar: The city authorities have so far supplied a whopping 10,000-odd packets of cooked food to the inmates of quarantine centres as well as Covid care homes ever since the coronavirus pandemic broke out here.
Out of the 10,000-odd food packets, Covid care homes, which have opened recently, have so far received 2,000 packets.
The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC), which is the nodal agency for Covid management in the city, has engaged four private agencies to supply the centres with cooked food in packed containers four times a day — for breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner. Extreme care is taken to pack the food in a hygienic manner and make it available on time every day.
The city currently has two Covid care homes with 55 inmates and two institutional quarantine centres with 118 inmates. The strength of the institutional quarantine centres, also called temporary medical centres (TMC)s, varies every day, as does that of the Covid care homes.
An officer in charge of the Covid care homes said food delivery on time was a priority. “Besides timely delivery of food, quality control is also important. We check the quality of the food first and only then approve it for serving to the inmates. On any given day, the agency staff note down the quantity of meals to be served, including the number of vegetarian meals,” he said.
The officer added that on some days, eggs are replaced with chicken in the non-vegetarian meals. “Lunch includes healthy items like dal, rice, raita and a curry for vegetarians. For non-vegetarians, we add chicken or egg. We have two or three varieties of breakfast. From upma, ghuguni (chana) to chuda fry (flattened rice) with santula, we serve healthy breakfast. The evening snacks include tea, biscuits or aloo chup,” the officer said, adding, “The agencies provide a daily supply report to us.”
With the virus spreading to new localities and slums, where home isolation is not allowed, the number of people in institutional quarantine is expected to increase.
The BMC officials said they don’t supply cooked food to people in containment zones and those under home isolation. In containment zones, vendors authorized by the BMC supply vegetables, grocery, egg and milk at market price. People in home isolation eat home-made food. Currently, the city has seven localities, all slums, under containment.