LIVE TV
Odisha
Recommended Stories
Bhubaneswar: While the Covid-19 graph in the State continues to soar during the second wave of the pandemic, the virus is posing more threats to lives in Odisha this year as compared to the first wave.
The virus is not only spreading rapidly during the second wave, but the mortality rate has also increased due to the new mutant strains, health experts observed.
According to the State Health and Family Welfare department, as many as 122 persons succumbed to the virus in April. But so far in this month (till May 16), the tally has witnessed over two-fold rise and stands at 270, approximately more than 16 deaths per day.
“The new mutant strains including the Andhra Pradesh strain are more dangerous and the possibilities of affecting lungs are more. This is resulting in more deaths,” said Dr Srikant Dhar, noted health expert.
Meanwhile, the unavailability of places for funeral at cremation sites has doubled the trouble for performing the last rites of Covid patients in the districts and the situation is likely to worsen further.
Keeping this in mind, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation is creating two new cremation sites at Jalimunda Sahi in Patia and Bharatpur in the Capital city.
While the Patia cremation site will have capacity for 20 funerals, 10 funerals can be performed at Bharatpur, sources said, adding that these crematoriums are expected to be operational by next week.
“There was a cremation site here. We are augmenting it to perform the last rites of both Covid and non-Covid bodies. We hope these two crematoriums will be operational by May 21,” said Surath Kumar Sahoo, BMC assistant engineer.
Similarly, authorities in Sambalpur have given nod to perform the last rites of Covid bodies at all the five cremation sites in the city and Burla.
“We have allotted four sites- Shatidham, Burla PWD Colony, Bishnumodipada and Central Line exclusively to perform the last rites of Covid bodies,” said Anirudh Pradhan, Commissioner, Sambalpur Municipal Corporation.
