As the Covid-19 cases in Odisha crossed the 30,000-mark on Thursday, opposition BJP said that the ruling-Biju Janata Dal should rise above politics and seek Centre’s help to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
The state reported 1,203 new cases in the past 24 hours, taking its tally to 30,378 while 10 deaths in the same period took the toll to 169. With 9,857 active cases, Odisha now has more active cases than MP, J&K, Haryana, Assam and Punjab. Ganjam, its hotspot district, now has close to 10, 000 cases.
Advocating the need to seek Centre’s help in tackling the pandemic, BJP state general secretary Bhrugu Buxipatra said that when Delhi lost its grip on Covid crisis management, the Aam Aadmi Party approached Union home minister Amit Shah for help.
“Maharashtra also sought Centre’s help. Similarly, the Odisha government should now seek Centre’s help in managing the crisis and curb the spread of virus in the state. In the last four months, BJP has extended its help in containing the situation in Ganjam. However the state has completely mismanaged (the situation),” alleged Buxipatra. “Even though the situation remains grim in Ganjam, the BJD government is not paying any heed to our demands.”
The BJP leader said that after demands grew louder, the state government announced setting up of a 100-bed hospital for the treatment of Covid-19 patients in Ganjam. “Fifteen days later, the hospital is only on paper. Moreover, we have demanded to increase testing in the district; that is also falling on deaf ears. The state government has failed in all aspects to put a brake on the spread of the virus,” said Buxipatra.
{{/usCountry}}The BJP leader said that after demands grew louder, the state government announced setting up of a 100-bed hospital for the treatment of Covid-19 patients in Ganjam. “Fifteen days later, the hospital is only on paper. Moreover, we have demanded to increase testing in the district; that is also falling on deaf ears. The state government has failed in all aspects to put a brake on the spread of the virus,” said Buxipatra.
{{/usCountry}}The BJD did not comment on the BJP’s demands.
However, a health official said that the state’s Covid fatality ratio is the lowest in the country and the state has the capability of conducting around 20,000 tests a day.
“Odisha has all necessary infrastructure in adequate quantity. Today, Odisha has 54 labs in all 30 districts where samples can be tested for novel Coronavirus. Out of these, 35 are government labs while nine are private. We have sufficiently increased our testing capacity. So come forward for testing. Our case positivity rate is low, the testing rate is increasing and Covid fatality ratio of our state is the lowest in the country. All our labs have been approved by the ICMR and their reports are very much authentic. I request people not to suspect the labs based on the results of Covid tests,” said NHM mission director Shalini Pandit.
Pandit said in Ganjam district, the state government is carrying out 1,500 to 2,000 tests per day. “We could test more people and isolate them. Due to this, over the last three to four days, the positivity rate in Ganjam has reduced,” she said.