COVID-19 Upsurge: Odisha Makes Thermal Screening Of Passengers From These 12 States Mandatory

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government on Thursday directed the district authorities to carry out thermal screening of the passengers coming from the states, which have recently reported rise in COVID-19 positive cases, at airports and railway stations.

In a letter to district collectors, authorities of Bhubaneswar and Jharsuguda airports and East Coast Railways, Additional Chief Secretary, Health & Family Welfare PK Mohapatra said there has been an upsurge in COVID-19 cases in 12 states including Maharashtra, Kerala, Telangana, Chattisgarh, West Bengal, Punjab, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh besides Union Territory of Chandigarh recently.

“It has been decided to enhance surveillance in our state to prevent a resurgence of COVID cases. The passengers disembarking at airports and railway stations coming from or through the above states will be checked by thermal screening and those found having symptoms or fever will be tested by rapid antigen test on site. If found positive, they will be put in isolation and treated as per protocol,” the letter stated.

The government requested the authorities to make necessary arrangements on ‘most urgent’ basis for thermal screening of all passengers and on-site RAT testing of symptomatic passengers disembarking from the trains and flights arriving from the identified high risk states to prevent spread of COVID-19 in the state.