Bhubaneswar: Amid resumptions of transport services, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Tuesday said that next 15 to 30 days will pose a challenge for the state government in its attempt to contain COVID-19 outbreak.
While reviewing the present COVID-19 situation in the state through video conferencing, Naveen said, “With opening up of flights and railways the coming 15 days to a month will be more challenging but I am sure we will handle the same in a professional manner with a humane face.”
The state has learnt many new things in the last two months of lockdown, he said.
“We have to re-strategise our response based on these learnings so that we are ahead of the pandemic and at the same time bring normalcy in economic and livelihood activities,” he told officers including chief secretary Asit Tripathy.
Naveen said the learnings on the behaviour of virus in India and more particularly in the state has given the hope that with strict social distancing, face-covering and repeated hand washing, the spread of pandemic can be contained. Besides, he batted for special care for the elderly and people with co-morbidities.
Patnaik suggested the officers plan a fortnight of serious awareness campaign in this context.
Stating social distancing is not social boycotting, Naveen said, “A combination of awareness creation coupled with strict action is required. This would also be a target for this week”. Testing has to be smart to take care of the frontline workers and vulnerable population, he further said.
“We are one of the leading states when it comes to testing in the country and that we could establish decentralized testing facilities in every part of the state,” he claimed. He also hinted that the state govt is going to tune its basic mandatory quarantine period on par with ICMR recommendations.
At the same time, empowered collectors can further extend institutional quarantine on a need-based manner in the overall interest of containing COVID spread.
The Chief Minister further stated that 95 per cent of our positive cases are from quarantine centres. This shows the robustness of the system and the efforts put by sarpanches, people’s representatives and the entire government machinery from top to bottom cutting across departments.
PNN
