80% COVID-19 Patients In Odisha Are Asymptomatic, Says NHM Mission Director

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government said on Saturday that about 80 per cent of 50 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) patients in the state are asymptomatic.

“It is a matter of great relief that out of 50 corona patients, 10 patients have completely recovered while the other two have been discharged from the hospital. We hope that the remaining patients undergoing treatment at the COVID hospitals will also recover in a few days,” Mission Director, National Health Mission (NHM) Shalini Pandit told the media here.

She said out of 37 patients, only two need hospital care while the remaining 35 patients — with no symptoms — are being kept in hospital isolation for the safety of their family and the community as a whole.

Citing the case of 37 patients having no symptoms testing positive, Pandit said it is now proved that a person can be infected with the virus sans any symptom.

“The most effective method of identifying these asymptomatic corona patients is surveillance for which we are conducting intense surveillance in rural and urban localities to identify infected patients at the earliest and and conduct as many tests as possible to contain the spread of the virus,” she pointed out.

She further stated that the number of tests during the surveillance, which begun in the state on February 1, has gradually increased. “We are now conducting 300-400 tests in a day which will be go up 2-3 times in the next 10 days,” she added.

Referring to the rise in the number of active cases, Pandit said this is a good sign because as more cases are detected, it will be easier to bring the disease under control.

As for the age-group of COVID-19 patients, she said that people above 60 have been found to be most susceptible all over the world. In Odisha, however, above-60 patients are only 8 per cent till date which shows that the people in this risk group are safe and secure.