‘Odisha fares better than other States in tackling COVID-19’

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government said the death rate due to COVID-19 infection in the State has been 0.03% so far compared to 0.7% in India, said an official today.

Due to steps taken by the State government in preventing the spread of the disease, the death rate has been low as compared to the national level figures. Odisha has become a model for other States in tackling COVID-19, said National Health Mission (NHM) Director Shalini Pandit.

The recovery rate in Odisha is considerably better at 66.78% in comparison to 51.01% in India. The State has taught the country how to tackle a pandemic, she added.

Positivity rate i.e. the number of COVID-19 positive cases per million people in Odisha is at 9.3%.

As per Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s directive, ASHA and ANM workers will visit every house in rural areas and slums in urban areas from June 16 to July 31 to enquire about suspected symptoms of COVID-19.

She further informed adhering to the revised ICMR guidelines, the State government is carrying out test of symptomatic and close contacts. Mostly virus infection spreads through the symptomatic persons.

The State government carried out 4,634 tests for COVID-19 till June 14 whereas the national level figures stands at 4305, Pandit added.

Two lakh COVID-19 tests were done in the State till yesterday at 17 laboratories spread across 10 districts, which is an achievement, she said adding that next four to six weeks are critical in the fight against the COVID-19.

So far, as many as 4,055 persons in the State tested positive for the deadly virus. The number of active cases stands at 1,187. While 2,854 persons cured of the virus infection, 11 died of the disease till yet.