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Bhubaneswar: From 394 positive cases on April 1, 2021 to 4761 at the end of April 20, Odisha witnessed a worrisome trend with 12-fold increase in the new cases in a span of 20 days.
Though the daily death cases remained under control, a total of 32 patients have already succumbed to the disease this April including the five casualties in the last 24 hours.
The primary reason behind the explosion of cases, as suggested by several health experts and the government agencies, is carelessness of the public. After the vaccination drive that took off some days back, people are seen to be reckless around this new strain of Coronavirus that has been spreading more aggressively than last year.
Apart from this, rising cases in neighbouring states like Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh, return of migrants from Mumbai, Delhi and Surat, Kumbh Mela returnees from Haridwar are some of the other factors that the experts are citing as reason for a steep rise in positive cases in Odisha.
Dr Ajay Parida, the Director of Institute of Life Sciences (ILS) in Bhubaneswar said, “The infections we are facing here are mainly from the contacts of Chhattisgarh. As per the latest data, the UK strain of Coronavirus has been detected in only 4% of patients. We can know more after genome sequencing is conducted on more and more patients.”
Meanwhile, the Odisha government has decided to ramp up its testing from a current 32,000 per day to 50,000 per day. In its effort to contain the spread from returning migrants, the State has already directed the Anganwadi workers, ASHA workers and the Sarpanchs to isolate and treat the infected COVID patients in COVID Care Centres. As per reports, the Ganjam district administration has already begun collecting data of returnees after putting them under thermal screening.
Speaking about the health infrastructure, Director of Odisha Public Health, Niranjan Mishra said, “We have already taken steps to increase the testing to 50,000 a day. All the districts bordering Chhattisgarh have been directed to set up COVID isolation centres to house the patients who do not have quarantine facilities at their homes.
(Edited By Ramakanta Biswas)
