Odisha Govt Raises Retirement Age Of These Medical Officers; Fresh Ammo To Bhubaneswar-Cuttack’s COVID-19 Fight

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government on Tuesday increased the retirement age of Medical Officers of OHMS cadre and Allopathic Insurance Medical Officers under Labour & Employees’ State Insurance Department from 62 years to 65 years.

After a review meeting here via video conference, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik also announced Rs 15 crore each to Khurda and Cuttack districts for COVID-19 management.

Besides, the Odisha government has sanctioned Rs 20.64 crore from Chief Minister Relief Fund for running new dedicated COVID hospitals and COVID Care Centres for the next three months in these two districts.

“More than one lakh people have returned from outside the state in the two districts of Khuda and Cuttack. Despite the large influx of migrants, the situation is under control with the recovery rate of 70 per cent in Khurda and 71 per cent in Cuttack, which is much above the national average of 63 per cent. I appreciate the teams in both these districts for achieving higher recovery rates,” the CM said.

Here are some pointers from the meeting:

Bhubaneswar/ Khurda district: 

1. 150-bed (including 30 bed ICU) Dedicated COVID Hospital by Aditya Ashwini Hospital.
2. Dedicated COVID Hospital at Nilanchal Hospital with 126 beds and 15 ICU beds to be operational this week
3. “With the active partnership of MLAs, community, religious organisations, resident welfare associations and NGOs, and Corporates, I am happy to know that 1385 beds in COVID Care Homes will be established soon. I hope this will inspire more such organisations to come forward to join the fight against COVID,” Naveen said.
4. Special focus on the slum areas to contain the spread of the virus. “The slum committees have been working well. the BMC will incentivise the good work done by these committees,” he added.

Cuttack District: 

1. The health infrastructure in the district is being expanded to take care of the increasing number of cases. 925 additional beds in COVID hospitals and COVID Care Centres are being established in Cuttack district.
2. Special focus on the congested areas in Cuttack city through active involvement of puja committees and sahi committees.
3. Training and information centre COVID-19 at SCB Medical College to be operational soon.
4. Upgradation of  Molecular Genome Lab at SCB for viral and human host genome sequencing to predict the prognosis of COVID-19 patients.

“I appeal to all the community organisations and corporates to set up COVID Care Homes and COVID Care Centres and join the fight against COVID-19,” the CM added.