Govt review says Odisha may have crossed peak

BHUBANESWAR: Odisha may have already crossed its peak in the ongoing second wave, health authorities said during a review of the Covid situation by chief minister Naveen Patnaik here on Tuesday.
“It looks we have reached the highest figure in the second wave on May 13 (12,390) and since then the number of cases are gradually falling. This may be interpreted as an early indication of the decline of the curve. This decline is more noteworthy as testing has also gone up to 58,000,” additional chief secretary (health) Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra said.
A presentation made by the top health administrator said the test positivity rate on a day-to-day basis has fallen to 18% from 21% last week despite increase in testing. “The testing target has been revised to 60,000 (RT-PCR and rapid antigen tests). We propose to increase the testing target to 70,000 per day from next week as the kit availability has improved,” Mohapatra added.
He said occupancy in intensive care units (ICU)s and high dependency units (HDU)s has dropped to 79.67% from more than 80% last week. At least 33 patients have been moved out of ICUs in the last 24 hours.
While there is oxygen support in 100% critical care and general beds, around 17,005 beds out of a total of 28,647 beds in Covid care centres have oxygen support. The government plans to enhance its critical care facilities by adding 368 ICU beds and 70 HDU beds in various healthcare facilities. Though the state has around 93,539 active cases as of Tuesday, around 85% of them are in home isolation.
The chief minister, during the review meeting, said that the lockdown seems to be having an impact in containing the spread of the infection as there is a clear trend since last week of new cases declining in some districts.
“The state-level test positivity rate has also started showing a declining trend. I am happy to note that the daily number of patients discharged has started exceeding the new Covid positive cases,” said Naveen during the review meeting. As the state government has announced a door-to-door screening campaign to intensify its effort in containing the virus, Naveen asked officials to plan the campaign meticulously to survey the people with Covid symptoms and co-morbid conditions.
The chief minister also said that widows and orphans due to Covid-19 should be identified on priority and pension sanctioned from Madhu Babu Pension Yojana. The affected children should also be provided with free education, as announced in the all-party meeting on Monday.
JSPL donates two tankers
Bhubaneswar: The Naveen Jindal-led Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) donated two cryogenic tankers to the state government with capacity of 16 MT each for supply of liquid medical oxygen to the state. The government had earlier reached out to various industries operating in the state to support the state government through their CSR initiatives in combating the second wave of Covid. TNN
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