When extended lockdown period began on Wednesday, the Odisha government reiterated its appeal to the people to continue maintaining social distancing strictly to contain spread of COVID-19 in the State.
Thanking the people for following lockdown restrictions during the past 25 days, Mission Director of National Health Mission in the State Shalini Pandit cautioned that any violation of restrictions may result in contracting the disease.
Ms. Pandit informed that Odisha was ahead of many other States in the country in containing COVID-19. The rate of spread of the virus was less in Odisha as only 60 COVID-19 cases were detected after testing 5000-odd samples collected from all the 30 districts.
As a result of increase in testing facilities, 803 samples were tested on Tuesday, and testing would be further ramped up in the State in the coming days, she said.
Ms. Pandit further said that of the 60 patients while 18 had recovered and one had died, the remaining 41 patients were also recovering fast.
Only two active cases were in need of proper medical care, she added.
Meanwhile, COVID-19 testing commenced at Ispat General Hospital, Rourkela and Institute of Life Sciences, Bhubaneswar on Wednesday.
COVID-19 hospital
Further, another exclusive COVID-19 hospital with 200 beds was made operational in Subarnapur district taking the number of such hospitals to 21 in 19 districts, increasing the number of beds to 3620.
Besides, as many as 7034 temporary medical centres/camps have been completed in 6798 gram panchayats in the State with 1,63,528 beds, according to an official release.
With Bhubaneswar emerging as the hotspot in Odisha with 45 COVID-19 cases detected so far, the government has assigned senior administration officials to be in overall charges of containment and prevention of the disease in the city.
