Pradeep Singh

News Highlights

  • The State government has also said that the second wave of the Covid pandemic is far from over
  • The number of Corona cases is still high in five districts namely Khordha, Puri, Cuttack, Nayagarh, and Jajpur

The Health Department of Odisha has exuded confidence to tackle any kind of eventualities in the wake of a third wave of Coronavirus outbreak in the State.

Health Minister Naba Das said that a detailed SOP has been sent to the authorities at district level to remain in full preparedness for a third wave of Covid pandemic. We have all the infrastructure and manpower to face any exigency," he told mediapersons on Friday.

After an expert panel's prediction for a third wave of the virus infections looming on Maharashtra in around a month due to uncontrolled crowds and disregard for Covid norms, the situation has triggered panic in Odisha. But the State government has assuaged the fears from the minds of the people. 

The government has instead urged people to exercise all forms of caution like wearing of masks, maintaining social distancing. 
Our preparedness for a third Covid wave doesn't mean that the State is definitely going to face the third wave. It is just a prediction, we should not panic," said DMET Director CBK Mohanty.

On the highly transmissible ‘Delta Plus’ or ‘AY.1’ variant of Sars-CoV-2, Mohanty has said, "Out of the 63 genomes of Delta Plus across the globe, 6 cases were reported from India by June 7. If the numbers are compared, we are safe and therefore is no need to be scared."

On the other hand, even though the number of Covid cases has significantly reduced in the State, the steady rise in infection figures of the last 4 days is something to worry about. The marginal surge in daily positives from 3613 to 3806 in the last day has also pushed the test positivity rate from 5.7 to 5.87. 

The State government has also said that the second wave of the Covid pandemic is far from over even though the rate of infections continues to dip in a majority of states. The number of cases is still high in five districts namely Khordha, Puri, Cuttack, Nayagarh, and Jajpur. Most of these districts are exhibiting TPR of around 10% with Jajpur alone witnessing a positivity rate of a whopping 19%.

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