By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneshwar, March 29, 2020: Faced with the possibility of community spread of the coronavirus following a man with no history of travelling abroad testing positive for COVID-19 in the state, the Odisha government has taken a series of measures including extensive training to MBBS students and augmentation of hospitals’ capacity to combat the crisis.

“During phase-1, the focus was on foreign returnees and later the surveillance has been shifted on people coming to Odisha from other states. Now, with the third confirmed case having no history of travelling abroad, we see a possibility of the outbreak moving into stage 3, which is community transmission,” the state governments chief spokesperson on COVID-19, Subroto Bagchi said.

Early this week, the state government has taken up setting up twp dedicated hospitals for COVID-19 patients with a total of 950 beds here with financial assistance from the Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL) and the Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC).

A similar facility with 700 beds will also be established at Tangi near Cuttack for people suspected to be infected with coronavirus. Similarly, the government has decided to temporarily reserve around 500 beds with ICU facilities, exclusively for COVID-19 patients, in Ganjam district, which witnessed influx of a large number of migrant workers from other states.

Besides, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Bhubaneswar, is setting up an exclusive unit with 206 beds in its campus for treatment of such patients.

The Odisha government also will give extensive training to MBBS students so that they can be deployed to combat the coronavirus outbreak, an official said on Sunday. The government’s decision is aimed to meet the shortage of doctors to fight the coronavirus outbreak.

“Considering the dearth of doctors, it has been decided that the 7th, 8th & 9th Semester MBBS students of all medical colleges will be trained who could be deployed in case a need arises,” an order issued by Odisha Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy said.
Around 20 ventilators are kept ready while orders have been placed for 40 more which will be delivered by next month, AIIMS-Bhubaneswar Director B Gitanjali said. “We have sufficient consumables and kits to deal with the emerging situation. We have also set up a dedicated COVID-19 screening OPD for suspected cases,” she said. The institute will introduce tele-medicine programme for providing necessary information to people on the deadly virus, the official said. “AIIMS, Bhubaneswar has also been permitted to conduct tests for COVID-19, and the institute has already started examining samples free of cost,” she said.

Moreover, arrangements at the Ayush complex of AIIMS, Bhubaneswar for an isolation unit have been made as part of its measures to grapple with the emerging situation, she said.

Steps are also being taken to put in place a large number of additional beds with proper facilities in other parts of the state for treatment of COVID-19 patients, the health department official said. The state government has set up 7,276 temporary medical camps in all the 6,798 gram panchayats with necessary facilities to tackle any emergent situation, he said.

The government has also decided to engage microbiologists on a temporary basis to ensure the smooth functioning of the district public health laboratories and collection of blood and swab samples, the official said. The newly-appointed medical officers, who have not joined the services in their respective places of posting, have been directed to join immediately, he said adding that the state government has allowed one-time relaxation for promotion of medical officers under the Dynamic Assured Career Progression (DACP) scheme.