By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, June 10, 2020: With the expected spike in the outbreak of coronavirus cases, the state government has decided to conduct a state-wide integrated campaign for door to door active surveillance, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said here on Wednesday.

“As the next few weeks are critical in controlling the spread of Covid as well as monsoon induced other communicable diseases, the Health Department will conduct a State-wide integrated campaign for house to house active surveillance for Covid, co-morbid conditions, TB, malaria and diarrhoea,” Patnaik said while addressing a technical workshop.

“I would like to extend my deep appreciation to all the hospital teams and district health teams. It is due to your dedicated efforts and selfless service that our State has been able to manage the Covid pandemic effectively so far,” he said.

“We all know that the best preventive measures for Covid-19 are personal protection through simple measures that should be consistently followed. In this difficult time, you are the heroes for the people. This places an even greater responsibility on you, as the conduct and protocols followed by you set an example for the people,” the chief minister remarked.

Patnaik has been stressing on protection of healthcare workers as they are the most valuable asset in the fight against Covid, but also the most vulnerable. The State government has taken extensive measures for training of personnel and purchase of required consumables, for personal protection.

“It is now essential that these protocols continue to be meticulously followed by you, to prevent infection amongst our valuable frontline workers and to maintain the faith of the people in our health institutions,” he said.

The Chief Minister said that he was distressed to note that over the past few weeks there have been instances of service providers in health facilities getting infected with Covid-19. This points to a probable breach in maintaining infection control practices.

Patnaik asked the Health Department to ensure that adequate supplies for personal protection and infection control are available at all levels in the field training on such protocols.