Bhubaneswar: Odisha Government Friday initiated steps to prevent any possibility of resurgence in COVID-19 cases amid rapid increase of cases in Maharashtra.
Additional Chief Secretary Health & Family Welfare, Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra has written to all District Collectors and Municipal Commissioners and Superintendent of Police(SP)s to ensure strict enforcement of COVID-19 appropriate behavior.
“You are aware that in the recent past there has been a surge of COVID-19 positive cases across some states, notably Maharashtra. In view of movement of persons across the country, it is quite possible that such a situation may arise in Odisha unless adequate precautions are taken,” Mr.Mohapatra said in the letter.
“You are therefore directed to ensure strict enforcement of COVID Appropriate Behavior in your district/city to prevent any spike in cases. Adequate testing levels should be maintained as per guidelines. Special care is to be taken to ensure that these measures are implemented in crowded places such as markets, religious institutions etc. There should not be any deviation in implementing the above instructions,” Mr.Mohapatra said.
Meanwhile, the State’s COVID-19 tally mounted to 3,36,513 on Friday after 53 people tested positive for the virus, while one more fatality pushed the death toll to 1,914, a health department official said.
Of the new cases, 31 were reported from various quarantine centres and the remaining are local-contact infections.
“Regret to inform the demise of 74-year-old male Covid positive patient of Bhubaneswar…” the Health and Family Welfare Department tweeted.
A total of 53 other COVID-19 patients have died due to comorbidities, the official said.
Of the 1,914 fatalities reported so far, Khurda district has accounted for 337 deaths followed by Ganjam (248), Sundergarh (173), Cuttack (142) and Puri (117).
Odisha now has 658 active cases, while 3,33,888 patients have recovered from the disease.
The state has conducted over 81.23 lakh sample tests for COVID-19, including 22,486 on Thursday.
Officials said 5,46,837 healthcare and frontline workers have received vaccine shots thus far
