Ganjam ready to ride out second wave of coronavirus

BERHAMPUR: As the Covid-19 cases witness a steady rise and so does the footfall of migrants from other states, a sense of déjà vu runs through Ganjam but the district administration has started building up its health infrastructure.Drawing from his experience from last year’s crisis, Collector Vijay Amruta Kulange said, the administration is ready to meet any exigencies.

At present, the dedicated Covid hospital at MKCG Medical College and Hospital is functioning with 150 beds and 20 ventilators and steps are being taken to operationalise two other private hospitals. Aswini-Amit Hospital with 150 beds and 25 ventilators and Tata-HiTech with 150 beds and 45 ventilators will be made functional soon, he said.

While the three hospitals have a total of 450 beds with 90 ventilators, another 350 beds at DCHCs which includes 150 beds at Aska, 100 beds at City Hospital and 50 each at Bhanjanagar and Hinjili are kept ready. Besides another 1,500 beds at Covid Care Centres across the district are being prepared. The district has made all arrangements for treatment of all positive patients, he asserted.Kulange said, natives returned but the footfall is not huge as they have responded well to the request from the district administration not to come back during Chaitra festivals. So far, only 6,064 returnees have registered and been screened which includes 5414 at block levels, 318 at urban bodies and 332 at railway stations.

“With the active cooperation of public, we passed the first wave and to contain the second wave, similar cooperation for adhering to Covid guidelines is essential,” he said. The spread of virus is less but if people do not adhere to the guidelines, the district may face serious situation, he cautioned. Ganjam reported 70 cases during last 24 hours taking its tally to 347 since April 1 but 124 of them have already been discharged. Two patients succumbed during the last 14 days. 

However, contrary to the claims of the district administration, the returnees’ number seems higher if the number of migrants arriving by trains alone is taken into account, sources said.  Since last five days, on an average 100 persons have been returning from other states, mostly from Maharashtra and Gujarat. On Wednesday, 800 persons alighted at railway station. All of them were screened though.

Kulange said, arrangements have been made to accommodate 2327 returnees for seven day institutional quarantine at cluster temporary medical camps in all 22 blocks in the district. Besides such arrangement for another 540 beds at urban local bodies in the district have been made which includes 150 in BeMC limits.