E-Paper
Odisha seals inter-state borders amid Covid-19 surge; govt writes to centre for vaccine
The state government also imposed restrictions on patients and attendants in hospitals to decongest unnecessary crowd.
Several Odisha districts bordering neighbouring states on Monday sealed the inter-state entry points to stop the possible entry of Covid-19 infected people. This comes as the state reported 1,741 new cases of Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of active cases in the state to close to 10,000.
With the total positivity rate surging to 5.78 per cent from less than 1 per cent in a month, the state government said the government and private Covid facilities which were functional during the first phase of the Covid-19 pandemic would be activated in a phased manner with an increment of 50 beds at a time when needed.
“The number of ICU beds would be 20 per cent of general beds and availability of ventilators at least 50 per cent of all lCUs. All private hospitals with 30 beds or more must have at least 10 per cent of available beds reserved for Covid-19 patients. They have to increase the facility up to 80 per cent of available general beds and ICUs in a phased manner as per the rise in the incidence of Covid-19 patients,” said Pradipta Mohapatra, additional chief secretary, health.
The state government also imposed restrictions on patients and attendants in hospitals to decongest unnecessary crowd. As per the guidelines issued by the directorate of health services under the health and family welfare department, there will be no central registration and the non-essential admission of patients at hospitals will be avoided. All elective surgeries would be stopped and emergency surgeries need to be taken up with universal precautions. One attendant is to be allowed for every serious patient in indoor wards while in case of the OPD, the medical officer would avoid advising frequent re-visit of the patients. People are being encouraged to utilize existing telemedicine services for their ailments.
Meanwhile, the district administrations of Sundargarh, Ganjam, Gajapati and Koraput sealed their borders with Jharkhand, Chhatisgarh and Andhra Pradesh. Sundargarh district has so far reported the highest number, 268, new cases. Sundargarh district collector Nikhil Pawan Kalyan said surveillance has been mounted at the border check posts on highways and railway stations. The RTO officials have been directed to allow entry to only those people with negative RT-PCR reports or final vaccination certificates.
Both Ganjam and Sundargarh district administration have stopped the entry of outsiders to government offices from April 12.
From Monday, the state government also made it mandatory for anyone arriving at its railway stations and airports to come with negative RT-PCR test reports or vaccination certificate. The negative test report must not be older than 72 hours.
“Those travelling without RT-PCR negative report will now have to furnish their details and undergo seven-day mandatory quarantine,” said BMC commissioner Prem Chandra Chaudhary. On-the-spot testing will be conducted for people showing symptoms of the flu at the airport, he added.
Workers in several industrial establishments in the state have also tested positive for Covid-19. The Balasore administration on Monday declared a colony of Emami Paper Mills Ltd in the district as a micro-containment zone after 103 employees tested positive for Covid-19. In the Rourkela Steel Plant, run by SAIL, as many as 28 employees tested positive for Covid-19.
Amid the steep rise in Covid-19 infection in the state, as many as 700 centres were shut on Monday due to lack of vaccine even as 2.71 lakh doses of Covishield arrived in the state.
State health minister Naba Das, in a letter to union health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Monday, said Odisha has so far has received 46.08 lakh doses of vaccines of which 42.71 lakh are of Covishield and the rest Covaxin.
“Presently, there are 1.59 lakh doses of Covishield and 71,010 doses of Covaxin available in the state. The balance stock of Covishield will last for a day only. On April 3, Odisha held 1,476 vaccination sessions and vaccinated 2,71,480 beneficiaries in a single day. However, since then due to shortage and uncertain supply of vaccine we have been forced to close about half of our vaccination centres. With such low and uncertain supplies of vaccines, it is impossible for us to schedule sessions in advance or mobilize people with confidence. Hence, our daily utilisation has come down to 1 lakh though we have the capacity for 3 lakh vaccinations daily. In such a situation of short supply of Covishield vaccines, we are unable to observe the Tika Utsav properly,” wrote Das.
