Odisha Steps Up Testing, Surveillance For COVID Surge; Next 3-4 Weeks Crucial, Know Why

Bhubaneswar: Even as Odisha reported less than 10 new COVID-19 cases for the second consecutive day on Thursday, the Odisha government asked district authorities to step up surveillance and maintain the testing target in view of a surge in other states.

“Though the current situation is not alarming, the next 3-4 weeks are very crucial as Odisha usually witnesses a spike, a month after a rise in infections in Delhi,” Health Services Director Bijay Mohapatra told the media.

It is pertinent to mention here that  Delhi reported 1,009 fresh COVID cases, 314 recoveries and 1 death in the last 24 hours. Wednesday was the maximum number of cases recorded in Delhi since February 10 when 1,104 infections were reported. The national capital now has 2,641 active cases.

He urged unvaccinated beneficiaries to immediately get the vaccine jabs. “Don’t go to crowded places if there’s no emergency,” he added.

Notably, the Directorate of Public Health has issued a set of guidelines to keep a close vigil on people coming from high burden countries and states. The districts have been advised to review emerging data on new cases/clusters, case positivity, population affected, geographical spread of cases and hospital infrastructure preparedness.

The local authorities have been asked to continue periodic surveillance of high-risk and vulnerable population like healthcare providers, educational institutions and residential hostels and enforce Covid protocol.

Surveillance on ILI and SARI will also be continued as before as part of an early warning system for detecting the rise of cases, besides in-house strengthening of testing, surveillance and treatment mechanism to face any upsurge of cases.

Notably, Odisha reported 9 new cases from five districts – two each from Khurda, Cuttack and Nuapada and one each from Sambalpur and Kendrapada – in the last 24 hours. These cases were detected from 21,195 samples, taking the test positivity rate to 0.04 per cent.