Covid surge in Odisha: Integrated surveillance to begin from tomorrow

In a bid to prevent a resurgence of Covid and detect infected persons, the Odisha government has initiated efforts and will be commencing integrated surveillance from June 21, informed State Health Services Director Bijay Mohapatra on Monday.

As per reports, door-to-door surveillance will be done to detect Covid infected persons across the State. Furthermore, Mohapatra has ordered medical colleges across the State to increase the workforce for lab testing, Rapid Reliable Testing (RRT) and surveillance. 

"The figure of middle-aged group persons who have been administered the precautionary dose is quite low. We have an existing surveillance method that is IDSP (Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme) which is for seven days. At the base level, we have Asha workers for 500-700 persons. We have divided the domestic population among them," said Mohapatra. 

Concerns have increased as around 29 lakh people haven't yet taken the second dose. Even around 40% of healthcare workers haven't taken the precautionary dose.

"Covid positivity is increasing across several states. Considering the situation, Odisha may likely witness a surge in cases soon. In order to stay safe from Covid, everyone must take the precautionary dose. Even many haven't yet taken their second dose. Covid vaccines are being administered across the state and even we have a mobile team for administering vaccines," said Bijay Kumar Panigrahy, Director of the Family Welfare department.

Further, Panigrahy added, "We have already initiated 'Har Ghar Dastak 2.0' programme from June 1 in which the frontline workers, Asha workers and Anganwadi workers are visiting door-to-door and are identifying the persons who haven't taken the second dose or the precautionary dose or haven't yet taken a single dose. In the first two weeks, we have administered over 28, 000 first doses and 84, 500 second doses and 33, 056 precautionary doses have been administered. In total, we have administered 1, 46, 334 vaccine doses under the programme.