Community safety pivotal to tackle COVID19 in Odisha: Dr Reddy

Bhubaneswar : Advisor to Odisha Government on Health and an internationally acclaimed public health expert Dr K Srinath Reddy today interacted with a galaxy of members of team Odisha, including Chief Minister Shri Naveen Patnaik, on Covid management. Joining from Gurugram over video conference, Dr Reddy interacted with the Ministers and top officers of the State Government on the learning outcomes from Covid till now and how to win the war against Covid.

Dr Reddy spoke on all aspects of the disease and the virus including its genesis, transmission, current global situation and future strategy. He made it quite clear that social distancing must continue to be the focus of all our efforts as there is currently no effective medicine or vaccine available for the disease. Community support and partnership can be immensely helpful; he said, adding that senior citizens and persons with co-morbidity need grater care.

He said that the origin of the novel corona virus is from bats and pangolin.

It infects humans mostly by droplets from cough and sneezing of infected persons, and enters other persons through mouth, nose and eyes. It is, therefore, essential to keep focus on social distancing, frequent hand washing, and using mask to keep the disease away, he suggested.

Highlighting data from various countries, Dr Reddy said that the virus is not only creating pneumonia, it is also causing fatal thrombosis. The infection is more widespread in the body as it is also damaging heart, brain and the intestine. It is affecting persons from all age groups. Especially the youth are more susceptible to the infection due to larger social contact. But their morbidity is lower. However, elderly persons, especially persons with co-morbidity, are at a higher risk. The infection can be quite serious for them and lead to death.
Dr Reddy highly appreciated the efforts of Odisha in containing the virus. The initiatives of Odisha need to be followed in the entire South Asia, he said.