Bhubaneswar : Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday announced that no COVID-19 patient in the State will be deprived of medical facilities due to lack of money and asserted that Odisha is one of the few states in the country which is providing universal care for Covid patients completely free of cost.
Today, during a video conference to review the management of COVID-19 in the State, Patnaik said that his Government is providing everything from testing to treatment to food, transport, accommodation with the objective that nobody should suffer without being able to get treatment due to financial problem in Odisha.
“For me and my Government every life is precious and we should work towards saving more lives,” said the Chief Minister.
He credited the untiring efforts of the frontline COVID warriors and people’s representatives for the brave fight Odisha has been putting up against COVID-19 in the last five months and have seen good successes.
“We have been dynamically assessing the situation and preparing advance plan for creating adequate infrastructure, procuring adequate testing kits and consumables. In the meanwhile, in a span of three weeks, we could establish five Plasma Therapy units from scratch,” said Patnaik.
He appreciated the efforts of the administration and doctors and all connected medical professionals of those Hospitals and said that Ministers have been assigned responsibilities to motivate people on Plasma Donation. The concept of Plasma Donation must be popularised at all levels, he added.
The Chief Minister further informed that his Government has decided to substantially enhance the testing during the coming weeks to take the fight against COVID-19 to the next level.
Expressing his happiness over the 32 thousand tests done yesterday, he advised the Collectors to lead the programme to conduct tests at sub-divisional hospitals and community health centres. BDOs and PRIs should play an active role in motivating people to voluntarily come forward for testing and further launch a campaign at local levels to destigmatize the COVID-19 positive persons, he added.
“Considering Global experiences as well as experiences from different states that home isolation provides better and early healing for asymptomatic and persons with mild symptoms, our Government has allowed home isolation as the preferred mode, both in urban and rural areas. Wherever, such persons who have no such facilities at home, they will be taken care of in the COVID Care Centre and Covid Care Homes, said Patnaik.
He directed that Home Isolation must be promoted as a good practice. The fear of the disease and stigma around it must be removed from the minds of the people and communities so that more and more people would opt for home isolation.
A home isolation kit comprising dos and don’ts, few basic medicines and a list of telephone numbers of Doctors, Counsellors/ Tele-medicine professionals and Government officials may be distributed among all such persons to enable them to call appropriate numbers regarding medical, psycho-social and other assistance if and when required.
“An appealing and convincing IEC campaigns may be launched to prevent stigmatisation of the Covid positive persons in the community. I urge the Public Representatives and members of Panchayati Raj Institutions to carry the message to the people against such stigmatisation,” said the Chief Minister.
Stating that Khordha, Cuttack, Jajpur and Sundargarh Districts need focus, Patnaik asserted that the State Government is putting a good fight against the speed of the Pandemic with efforts of Covid warriors and strategies.
“We have ramped up testing. We have one of the highest recovery rates in the country and we have one of the lowest fatality rates in the country,” he added.