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Aiming to reduce Covid toll, Odisha forms 7 panels

The state government has formed seven committees with 41 members for round-the-clock assistance to Covid facilities across the state, on the directions of the Health and Family Welfare Department, with a target to bring down the number of deaths.

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With a surge in Covid cases amid increased testing, the Odisha government has decided to focus on reducing the fatality rate, which stands among the lowest in the country at 0.48 per cent. The state government has formed seven committees with 41 members for round-the-clock assistance to Covid facilities across the state, on the directions of the Health and Family Welfare Department, with a target to bring down the number of deaths.

The state is conducting over 50,000 tests daily with more than 2,000 cases being recorded daily as against the daily average of 1,200 cases earlier this month. The Covid tally touched 67,122 with 2,589 cases — the highest single-day surge — being reported on Wednesday amid a total of 45,314 recoveries so far. The toll jumped to 327 with 10 new deaths.

“A multi-disciplinary technical team has been constituted by Directorate of Medical Education and Training, involving professors from seven medical colleges with an objective to reduce the fatality rate,” Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy said.

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Dr Jayant Panda, Odisha’s technical advisor on Covid-19, said as the state has managed to reduce the positivity rate with increased testing capacity, they are now working towards bringing the daily toll below 5 — it is 10 at the moment. “The idea behind constituting such committees with experts is to provide technical expertise for critical patients so that we do not lose any more lives… The total number of deaths is now approaching 400 which is not a very good sign… If we include deaths due to other underlying conditions, the death toll is more than 400,” he said.

“Recoveries have increased, the positivity rate has come down from 9 to 5 percent. So we want to closely monitor all the critical patients to bring down the daily deaths as well… We are aiming that by the last week of August or first week of September we are able to bring down the deaths,” Dr Panda said. “So far, in terms of infrastructure, we are not facing any issues.”

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Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik through a video conference also reviewed the Covid situation in the state and directed to adopt location-specific strategies for several districts, including Khordha, Cuttack, Sundargarh and Rayagada, in order to reduce the positivity rate within a week.

First uploaded on: 20-08-2020 at 01:28 IST
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