High Court Demands ‘Roadmap’ On COVID Care In Odisha Districts

Cuttack: What is the ground situation on availability of COVID-19 test facilities in Odisha, especially in rural areas? What is the status of healthcare facilities, both government and private, to treat COVID patients in the districts?

The Orissa High Court has put these posers to the state government.

A bench of Chief Justice S Muralidhar and Justice BP Routray ordered the Additional Chief Secretary (Health and Family Welfare), Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra, to submit a detailed report on these aspects to the court.

The court passed the order on Tuesday while hearing a PIL filed by one Sanjiv Joshi to seek the HC’s intervention in availability of RT-PCR testing facilities in rural areas and blocks.

The court also told Mohapatra to report on availability of RTPCR and rapid antigen test kits, number of ASHA and paramedical staff trained in using the test kits, and the time lag between taking the COVID test and availability of the result.

The court said it would like to understand the ground situation district-wise, starting with Kalahandi and Nabarangpur.

Accordingly, the bench directed Mohapatra to file an affidavit on the statistics relating to both the districts on the issues highlighted by September 14.

The bench said that the affidavit shall also present a ‘health map’ of each of the two districts, marking the locations where both public and private health facilities are available and where the RTPCR and rapid antigen tests can be undertaken.