By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, April 16, 2020: Odisha will soon establish a National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) -like health disaster mitigation facility in the state, said Health Minister Naba Kishore Das on Thursday.

A proposal has been made to establish a health disaster mitigation training centre so that doctors, paramedics, nurses can be imparted advance training for immediate deployment during future health exigencies, Das said.

“The proposed training centre will be set up in line with the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF),” the Minister said following a meeting of the empowered group of ministers on Covid-19 held through video conferencing on Thursday.

He said that the Health Department has decided to conduct a massive pool test of the coronavirus at the community level to identify the infected patient at the earliest.

Proposals have been made to facilitate coronavirus testing at all medical colleges in the state and increase the day-wise test count to more than 3000, he added.

Panchayati Raj Minister Pratap Jena said the meeting on Covid-19 stressed on manpower development, training and capacity building.

Recommendations were made for the opening of coronavirus testing labs at all medical colleges and hospitals, he added.