Lockdown Routines: Readying COVID Hospital Keeps Manoj Nayak Busy

Bhubaneswar: An achiever, who has mastered the art of turning adversity into opportunity, Prof. Manojranjan Nayak is now focused on combating the grave threat posed by coronavirus that has brought the world to its knees.

Adverse situations have always brought out the best in him. And the pandemic is no different: it has provided him an opportunity, that too with tremendous responsibility.

Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan, the Deemed to be University set up by Prof. Nayak, has already established itself as one of the best in the country. Little wonder, the Odisha government chose to entrust Institute of Medical Sciences and SUM Hospital, SOA’s faculty of medicine, with the establishment of the country’s second largest COVID Hospital.

“It is possibly the biggest challenge for me and my colleagues. Thanks to the state government’s support and guidance and hard work of our team, we are ready with a 525-bed facility to treat corona positive patients,” he says, satisfaction writ large on his face.

“The real test will be to deal with the situation if the COVID positive cases increase in our state,” he points out. And, in his bid to put his best foot forward, he has been putting in long hours during the lockdown. “I personally monitor everything from home and am on the phone continuously.”

“I hold meetings with the doctors and other staff regularly to motivate them to prepare for this battle while maintaining social distancing all the time,” Prof. Nayak says.

IMS and SUM Hospital is also entrusted with establishment of two more COVID Hospitals at Angul and Kendrapara.

To accomplish the tasks at hand, Prof. Nayak gets up early, follows his fitness regime and settles down to work in his res-office. “I relax by reading and writing short stories,” he says, adding it’s difficult to relax now as so much has been happening.

“I only hope and pray that the corona outbreak subsides and we do not need to use the SUM COVID Hospitals much.”