As the chain of covid transmission is fast spreading to rural areas, the government has shifted attention to the villages in a bid to arrest the rising trend of infection.
State Director of Health services Dr Bijay Mohapatra said on Tuesday that the government has set focus on rural pockets like it was done in the previous year. Institute of Life Science (ILS) had conducted a survey last year in rural areas. In addition to it, an integrated survey was also carried out for viral diseases like dengue, malaria, and diarrhoea in rural pockets for three months.
The government has issued strict instructions for door to door survey in villages.
Earlier, those who had symptoms like fever, cold and cough, were tested for covid-19, but this time, Anganwadi workers, ASHA and health activists have been engaged to conduct door to door survey on the health condition of every family. If any of the family members has some symptoms, he or she would be tested immediately, Mohapatra pointed out.
As many as 56,000 testings are being carried out on daily basis, which will be increased in the coming days, he said.
Keeping the daily covid graph in mind, the government has made adequate arrangements for beds and ICU facility in VIMSAR (Sambalpur) SCB Medical College in Cuttack and Capital Hospital in Bhubaneswar, Mohapatra said.
Clarifying on plasma therapy which was claimed to be useful for serious covid patients, Mohapatra said plasma is not so beneficial as per latest study.
So, we should rather focus on a treatment method which would be beneficial to the patients even though the State has enough units of plasma, he maintained.
Initially, Sundergarh district had the maximum number of cases but it started declining in the last few days. The rate of infection is on a steady surge in Cuttack and Khordha districts, Bhubaneswar being a part of the latter, due to heavy influx of migrants. The present situation in the two districts may continue for some more days, Mohapatra pointed out.
The government has focused on expediting the vaccination drive in the State even as the daily infections are hovering between 10,000 and 12,000, he said.