Odisha Govt Rules Out Shutdown For COVID Situation Now

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government on Wednesday expressed concern over rising COVID cases in the state but ruled out imposition of shutdown in present situation.

Speaking to mediapersons, here, Health Services Director Bijay Mohapatra said the daily caseload of COVID in the state has remained over 11,000 for the last few days. With contamination rate picking up, the R-value of the coronavirus has also gone up, he added.

Though the spread of the virus is a matter of concern, it does not warrant imposition of lockdown or shutdown at present, he added.

R-value shows how fast coronavirus is spreading in a particular region and the number of people who can get infected due to a COVID-infected person

“People should not panic and immediately. go for COVID test if they develop the symptoms,” Mohapatra said.

Notably, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik stressed micro-containment strategy instead of lockdown to contain the spread of the virus after a review meeting on Tuesday.

The senior health official further said the Health Department is planning to increase the COVID test centres and their daily testing capacity. Steps are being taken as per the suggestions of the central government, he added.

Odisha saw a slight rise in COVID caseload on Wednesday as 11,607 more people tested positive for the virus in the last 24 hours. Among them, 991 are in the age group of 0-18 years.

Also Read: Odisha Logs 11K Plus COVID Cases For 2nd Day, 4347 From Khurda; TPR Nears 17%

Amid this surge, COVID testing in the state had dropped to around 14 per cent since January 12 when the daily caseload breached the 10,000-mark for the first time during the third wave of COVID. It had then tested 81,065 samples and since then there has been a fall in testing with 75,731 on January 13, 74,936 on January 14, 77,120 on January 15, 70,117 on January 16 and 70,990 on January 17.

The testing dropped further to 69,502 samples on January 18, despite a directive from the Centre to enhance the number to effectively track the spread of the pandemic.

Also Read: Odisha Testing Less Samples For COVID, 14% Drop Since January 12