‘Pick Up And Drop Facility’ For Elderly & Disabled In Cuttack; Infection Highest Among 18-44 Age Group

Cuttack: Pick up and dropping facility for the COVID-19 vaccination of elderly and disabled persons is now available in Cuttack city.

Briefing the media on Saturday, Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) Commissioner Ananya Das said they can avail the facility by dialling the CMC control room number 9777067297. “Once an appointment is fixed, they will be picked from their home in a vehicle to the centre and dropped back after the vaccination,” she said.

The commissioner also said a special camp has been set up at the Kalyan Mandap at Gopalpur for students, who need a vaccination certificate to pursue their studies abroad and those working in foreign countries. “They can walk into this centre between 10 am and 5 pm from Monday to Friday except on public holidays with the verified confirmation letter from the foreign university concerned, Aadhaar card or any other ID proof and the document of employment,” she added.

The CMC has also made arrangements to meet the demand for an oxygen concentrator. “Those who immediately require an oxygen concentrator can book it on the Sachetak app after which the CMC team will contact them and deliver it at his/her home. Besides, the rapid response team (RRT) of the primary health centres (PHC) will conduct regular follow-up on the health of the patient,” she said.

She attributed the decline in the daily caseload and the test positivity rate (TPR) in the city to the active cooperation of the people, who stick to the COVID appropriate behaviour.

“Due to active surveillance and contact tracing with disciplined isolation, the number of SOS calls received by the CMC control room for emergency shifting or positive cases have also come down,” she said.

Das said sufficient numbers of beds with oxygen are available. A number of ICU beds are lying vacant as the number of admission of the critical patients have come down since last one week.

“There are 600 beds in the COVID ward of SCB Medical College and Hospital. The Chief Minister had inaugurated a centre of excellence at the SCB last week where there are 100 beds including 41 ICU beds. With this, the number of ICU beds has gone up to 94,” the commissioner said.

Foundation stones were also laid for the setting up of a liquid oxygen plant and a pressure swing absorption plant inside the SCB campus last week. “This will make us self-reliant in the supply of oxygen to critical patients in the coming days,” she said.

Referring to the vaccination drive in the city, Das said that around 3.5 lakh people have been vaccinated so far. Among them, 1.5 lakh belong to the 18-44 age group, 85,000 in 45-59 age group and 72,000 in the 60 years and above age group.

“We are also conducting special offline vaccination camps for those who do not have a smartphone or laptop for online registration. We have already administered 400 doses of vaccines at a camp on Kusthashram premises at Gandhipalli and Nehrupalli area. We are also targeting the senior citizens at the old age homes,” she said.

Special camps are also being organised for the vaccination of the people living in the slums, she added.

Talking about the number of positive cases in the city, Das said that the maximum number of those infected are in the 18-44 age group. “The vaccination of this age group is now going on vigorously, we hope that the number of positive cases in this age group will come down drastically in the coming days,” she noted.