BHUBANESWAR: As Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik directed a fresh course to be charted out to contain the spread of coronavirus infection in Khurda and Cuttack districts which have emerged as hotbeds accounting for more than 30 per cent of the daily caseload, the Government on Thursday began the process of devising a strategy which includes enhanced response system of municipal corporations of the twin cities and more critical care infrastructure.

Of the 3,631 new infections reported in last 24 hours, the second biggest single-day spike, as many as 1,092 cases came from both the districts with Khurda topping the chart with 722 cases and Cuttack 370 cases. The two districts have registered 7,203 Covid cases and 19 deaths in last one week. On the day, Bhubaneswar recorded its highest single-day spike of 580 cases, including 61.89 per cent local contacts having no travel or contact history. Around 43 per cent cases of the 237 new infections reported in Cuttack city are local contacts.

After a review, the Chief Minister said Odisha has done well by conducting more than 20 lakh tests which translates to 42,404 tests per 10 lakh. The recovery rate in Odisha stands at 76.78 per cent while the death rate is only 0.46 per cent. He asked officials to arrange more ICUs beds for serious Covid patients in existing hospitals in the district itself. All serious patients should get ICU facility.  

Though the State Government has been encouraging home isolation in urban pockets to decongest hospitals owing to rise in number of cases, patients in home isolation in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack have reported traumatic experiences with little response from the city administration concerned as and when required.

Sources said, the Government is planning to strengthen response of municipal corporations since patients are made to wait for days together to be shifted to Covid hospitals even if their condition deteriorates. There are also allegations of patients suffering from complications even after discharge as they are getting released before the scheduled date. The situation is more acute in the State Capital.

Additional Chief Secretary of Health department PK Mohapatra said a stricter strategy is being adopted to contain the spread of the disease in the two districts. It has been decided to add 460 general and 304 ICU beds in the Covid hospitals of the twin cities, he said.

Apart from reinforcement of manpower to strengthen contact tracing and testing, focus is on to integrate both the health control room (104) with the control rooms of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack so that patients do not suffer when they require immediate medical attention.

“We will convene a meeting on Friday with officials of both the corporations, senior doctors and technical committee experts to chalk out the strategy. We will prioritise testing and treatment besides contact tracing,” Mohapatra added.

On the day, 3,278 patients recovered from 30 districts. The active cases now stand at 25,485 after a total 87,351 recoveries.