Odisha Ramps Up Infrastructure, Well Prepared To Handle COVID-19 Surge

Bhubaneswar: It took medical teams in Odisha 10 weeks to conduct the first one lakh tests for COVID-19. However, with well placed medical infrastructure, for reaching 4 lakh to 5 lakh tests, it took just 10 days in the State, National Health Mission Director Shalini Pandit said.

Today, Odisha has 54 labs in all 30 districts where samples can be tested for novel Coronavirus. Out of these 35 are Government labs while nine are private. On daily basis Odisha is capable of conducting around 20,000 tests which include RT-PCR, TrueNAT, Antigen etc.

“In Ganjam alone we are carrying out 1,500 to 2,000 tests per day. We could test more people and isolate them. Due to this, over the last three to four days, the positivity rate in Ganjam has reduced,” she said.

It takes four to five days for the virus to grow in the body and only then it will reveal itself in the test. Again after a few days when the body’s immunity deals with the it, the viral load decreases. Subsequently, a person who was infected will test negative. So, at different stages, a person might show positive or negative (in COVID test), depending on the presence, absence or intensity of viral load in the body.

“All our labs are have been approved by the ICMR and their reports are very much authentic. I request people not to suspect the labs basing on the results of COVID tests,” said Pandit.

Elaborating further on infrastructure, she said that Odisha Government has setup up 1,000 beds in 7 hospitals in Ganjam, Khurda and Cuttack. All this was done in just one week. “So, people should not worry about shortage of beds, drugs or oxygen. Odisha has all necessary infrastructure in adequate quantity.”