Bhubaneswar: Nothing can defeat a person if he or she has a strong will. Armed with a steely determination, the 40 inmates of Shelter for Urban Homeless (SUH) under the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) fought coronavirus bravely and bounced back to normal life.
These inmates were housed in various SUHs in Bhimpur, Malisahi, Ganga Nagar, Ashok Nagar and Chandrasekharpur. When a staffer at one of the SUHs was found COVID positive, the BMC swung into action and deployed a team for testing of all the inmates of the SUHs.
Out of the 150 inmates who were tested, 40 turned out to be COVID positive. All of them were quarantined at the Ganganagar SUH separately. The Rapid Response Team (RRT) visited Ganganagar SUH from time-to-time to check on them and supply the requisite medicines and supplies.
Apart from the medicines provided by RRTs, the inmates were also given “kadha” twice in a day as prescribed by the AYUSH Department of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
According to BMC officials, the elders of the lot are also practicing yoga and other physical exercises to keep themselves fit. None of them required any hospitalisation.
BMC sources informed that out of the 40 positive 25 were in the age group of 35 to 45 years, 11 in the age group of 45 to 55 and four were about 55 to 65 of years. None of the inmates in Ghatikia and Baramunda tested positive.
Ajay Mohanty, an inmate of the SUH at Ganganagar said, “The BMC authorities and OPUS people have taken care of all inmates during the COVID-19 pandemic. We are happy and lucky that we recovered from the viral attack.’’
Another inmate, Rimbusha Pradhan added that the “homely environment’’ in the SUH made the recovery faster and all of them adhered to the norms of hand washing, wearing masks and social distancing.
