Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government has sought the advice of health experts of the country on a strategy to tackle the future waves of the pandemic and on how to strengthen the healthcare system further.
During a meeting with the high-level COVID advisory committee headed by public health expert and health advisor of the state government K Srinath Reddy over videoconference, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said the state government will fine-tune its strategy to defeat the coronavirus and assured unstinted support to take forward the strategies.
“The second wave has caused so much turmoil that people are very scared about the future. They fear more variants and more waves. They fear uncertainty. On top of it, the lockdowns and its effect on the economy, has caused great financial pressure on many families and businesses,” he said.
It’s been more than a year and still, there is no end in sight, he added.
Speaking on Odisha situation, the CM said that Odisha has been able to provide timely help to the COVID patients and take care of their health care requirement to a large extent. “We have been able to manage the oxygen support systems and even provided help to other states for their oxygen systems. We have been able to manage without our health care systems getting over overwhelmed,” he said.
He further said that the current trend of the COVID cases is on the decline across the state except for a few districts and hoped that the second wave is beginning to recede. “We are focusing on vaccination and intend to utilise all resources to quickly vaccinate our people,” he said.
Expressing his concern about reports that the next wave would affect children, Naveen said that if it’s true then we will have to be better prepared since taking care of them in the hospitals is a big challenge.
Members of the committee emphasised intensifying vaccination to contain the spread of the virus.
Reddy stressed advance planning which could possibly be taken up as per the advice of the expert doctors.
Dr Devi Shetty of Narayana Health said the cost-effectiveness of the vaccination is far better than lockdown. He said the priority in vaccination should be on the basis of occupation rather than age group.
Dr Ramakanta Panda of Asian Heart Institute advised on ramping up the capacity, safe, clean Oxygen delivery, especially the use of medical-grade oxygen for black fungus and decentralisation of the health system.
