Odisha Crosses 50K Milestone In COVID-19 Testing: NHM Director

Bhubaneswar: Odisha on Wednesday achieved a new milestone in COVID-19 fight by crossing a cumulative 50,000 COVID-19 sample testing, informed National Health Mission (NHM) Director, Odisha, Shalini Pandit.

Briefing media on Thursday, the NHM Director said the State is now conducting more than 3000 COVID-19 tests per day at its eight different laboratories. “We reached a cumulative 50,514 COVID-19 sample testing on Wednesday and our per-day testing capacity will increase further in the coming days,” she said.

Odisha enhanced its testing capacity by increasing the number of test laboratories in the State. The State had only one COVID-19 testing centre at RMRC Bhubaneswar a month ago, but it soon started tests at seven other centres at AIIMS and Institute of Life Sciences Bhubaneswar, SCB Cuttack, Ispat General Hospital, Rourkela, MKCG Berhampur, VIMSAR Burla and Apollo Hospitals in Bhubaneswar, said Pandit.

“I thank the doctors, researchers and scientists at our different laboratories who are working day and night and testing the samples by staying away from their homes. Reaching the milestone would not have been possible without their tireless work,” she said.

The aim of testing is to trace and identify the positive cases. The number of positive cases will increase with the increase in sample testing. If a positive case is detected at the right time, 400 people can be saved from the infection of the virus. “It’s obvious that the number of coronavirus cases will increase in the coming days following a rise in the testing of samples. As many as 11 new laboratories will be set up in different parts of the State like Berhampur, Bolangir, Koraput, Baripada, Balasore, Rayagada and Kalahandi to ramp up the COVID-19 testing capacity further, informed Pandit.

She further said that till a vaccine is developed to cure the disease, people need to wear mask, maintain social distancing and wash hands regularly to save themselves from the infection. “I know it’s not so easy to follow it always, but we have to obey these three rules to successfully fight the battle against coronavirus,” added the NHM Director.

On the other hand, the State Information and Public Relations (I&PR) Department secretary, Sanjay Singh today said that no returness can get down from bus while returning to the State.

It has been noticed that the returnees are alighting from bus en route their destination districts posing grave risk to public health and safety. It is therefore instructed that no bus or any other vehicle will be allowed to board or alight any returnee en route from the Border Check Point (BCP) and in case of violation, the vehicle and the driver will be detained and face legal action, said Singh.