Central team in Odisha to review COVID situation; to visit highly-infected districts tomorrow

Bhubaneswar: A two-member central team arrived in Bhubaneswar today to review management of COVID-19 situation in the state.

The team led by Dr A Dan, Public Health Specialist AIIH & PH landed at Biju Patnaik International Airport here on an Air India flight from Kolkata via Jharsuguda. The two officials will have a discussion on prevailing COVID situation with Director of Public Health Niranjan Mishra, who will put forth a comprehensive report before them today.

After preliminary discussions, the central team will visit private and Government hospitals here today and is likely to visit districts reporting maximum number of positive cases tomorrow.

“We will visit highly-infected districts tomorrow to review situation from various angles. Third wave of the pandemic may come in August- September,” said team member Dr Shibani Dutta, Professor in the Department of Public Health Administration at All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health, Kolkata.

Recently, the Centre had informed that multi-disciplinary teams will be deputed to Odisha, Kerala, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Chhattisgarh and Manipur in view of increased number of cases being reported in the states.

Also Read: Centre Sends Multi-Disciplinary Team To Odisha For COVID-19 Control, Containment Measures 

The team will monitor overall implementation of COVID-19 management, including testing, surveillance and containment operations, COVID appropriate behaviour and its enforcement, availability of hospital beds, sufficient logistics including ambulances, ventilators, medical oxygen etc., and vaccination progress.

The Central teams will assess the situation and suggest remedial actions to the state governments.  A copy of the report will also be provided to the Union Health Ministry.