Following Union Health Secretary’s concerns over ‘rising Covid infection and fatality rate in certain districts of Odisha’, director of State Health Services, Bijay Mohapatra clarified that Odisha is in a much better position as compared to the national trends.
In light of the emergence of Omicron variant of Covid-19, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan in his letter had mentioned that states have been told to step up surveillance measures. Bhushan had highlighted - Odisha has reported 7445 new cases in the month ending 4th December (30 days), with a contribution of 2.5% to India's new cases from over the past month.
In Odisha, he said, Khordha district is reporting a high quantum of weekly new cases with 900 new cases reported in week ending 3rd December. Dhenkanal, Kandhamal, Keonjhar, Nabarangpur, Bolangir and Angul districts recorded a surge in coronavirus cases over the last week ending December 4th, while Dhenkanal alone witnessed a 667% rise, as tally rose from nine to 69 in a week.
Further, the Health Secretary said that the state exhibited a decline of 3.1% in weekly tests conducted in week ending 26th Nov to the week ending 3rd Dec.
In this context, Bhushan said that required necessary steps to control the spread of infection and reduce fatality need to be taken as per the ongoing strategy of test-track-treat-vaccinate-Covid appropriate behaviour to keep the situation under control. But this is not the actual scenario, said Odisha Health Services Director. Speaking to mediapersons, the top health official from Odisha said that Odisha’s transmission rate is better in comparison to the national average. While the national positivity rate in November stood at 1.1%, in Odisha it was 0.4%. Similarly, Odisha’s fatality rate stood at 0.8% in comparison to national average of 1.3% death rate. Refuting the claims of the Centre regarding decreasing testing, Mohapatra said that Odisha is maintaining a decent testing count per lakh population, almost double the average of country.
“The letter of the Centre is based on the previous week's status. Last week, Dhenkanal's positive tally was 53. If you compare yesterday's scenario with today's, no district in Odisha has indicated surge in infections. Khordha district which reported around 150-200 cases daily is comparatively reporting less number of cases. Over concerns regarding testing, let me clarify that 59000+ tests have been conducted in last 24 hours, today's data will reveal that. The number of daily testing had declined on account of cyclone and inclement weather. Odisha's positivity rate is 0.4%, while overall in India it is 1.1%. Per lakh testing of Odisha is 4542 whereas in country's average per lakh testing is 2685,” said Bijay Mohapatra, Director, Health Services.
The daily positivity was recorded at 2.73 per cent, while the weekly positivity was pegged at 1.71 per cent.
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The daily positivity was recorded at 2.73 per cent, while the weekly positivity was pegged at 1.71 per cent.
Union Health Secretary said that irrespective of the new COVID variants, ‘Test-Track-Treat-Vaccinate and Adherence to COVID Appropriate Behaviour’ continue to remain the tested strategy for COVID management.
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