Odisha’s Fight Against Coronavirus: Subroto Bagchi Uses ‘Safety Match’ Video To Explain Social Distancing

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government’s chief spokesperson on COVID-19, Subroto Bagchi  on Thursday explained the importance of social distancing with the help of an animated video ‘Safety Match’’ by artist couple Juan Delcan and Valentina Izaguirre.

In the animated video, the Los Angeles couple used a row of matchsticks lined up like dominos to illustrate social distancing.

When the first matchstick is lit, the flame begins to spread rapidly from one stick to the next, until one of the matchsticks steps out of the line and saves it and others from burning.

After showing the video, Bagchi explained, “The moral of this story is that the matchstick (person) who broke the line (queue) first saved himself and then hundreds of matchsticks (persons). This queue could be the one at a temple, a railway station, a cinema hall or in a village. So our responsibility today as individuals is to move away from this line (queue).”

The animated video ‘Safety Match’ has gone viral on social media platforms. It has received 6,700 likes and has been retweeted 3,700 times.

You can watch the video here:

On sample testing, Bagchi said 61 samples have been tested so far in Odisha and only one was found positive for the infection.  The five samples tested on Wednesday showed negative results.

He further said that 23 persons are being kept in isolation in different hospitals for having come in close contact with COVID-19 patients. “A total of 3183 isolation beds have been kept ready in government and private hospitals across the state to attend to such cases,” he stated.

The 104 Health Helpline has received 12,268 calls in the last 24 hours and 2,600 persons with travel history abroad have registered on COVID-19 portal, he added.