Amid the growing concern over a sudden surge of Covid-19 cases and detection of Omicron variant, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is scheduled to hold a meeting at 5 pm today.
With the State witnessing an upward trend of Covid-19 and Omicron cases, speculation about the arrival of third wave is rife. The Chief Minister will chair the review meeting with senior officials of several departments, including health and police departments.
The meeting is likely to discuss the strategies to face the possible third wave and curb the trend. Besides, discussion will be held on how the returnees from foreign countries and affected states can be identified and subjected to test and how the existing infrastructure like the hospitals once used to run on PPP mode can be strengthened, how to make people obey the Covid-19 guidelines and the police will be directed to ensure the strict adherence of Covid-19 norms.
The CM is likely to lay emphasis on vaccination. The health department will also be directed to pull up its socks in accordance with the situation.
Notably, Odisha has been registering more and more Covid-19 cases. On January 1, the State had registered 298 new cases. The number increased to 424 on January 2. On January 3, the same number of patients (424) had tested positive for Covid-19.
Today, the State registered 680 cases, the highest cases in over three months. Of the 680 cases, 397 were from quarantine centres and 283 contacted the virus locally.
With the fresh addition, the State’s caseload has increased to 10,56,660. During last 24 hours, 146 patients have recovered from the disease, taking the total recoveries to 10,45,255. The number of active cases stands at 2,888.
The number of Omicron cases is also increasing and so far 37 Omicron cases have been detected. Similarly, three cases of the new variant were also reported from a hotel in Puri.
Meanwhile, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation has sealed the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) office at Vani Vihar today. The BMC’s Zonal Deputy Commissioner (South-East) informed that they had to seal the office after more than one positive cases of Covid-19 were reported from the office.