By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, May 18, 2021: Even as the Odisha government on Tuesday extended the lockdown restrictions in the State till June 1 to arrest the steady surge in cases of Covid-19 in the State, experts said, its real Covid-19 challenge lies in rural areas. The pandemic appears to have exposed the of an already decrepit health infrastructure in rural Odisha.

Assuming that there are more than one lakh active Covid cases right now, the current bed availability is just inadequate. As it is, the distribution of medical manpower is skewed in favour of urban areas. How critical Covid-19 patients would get treatment in rural areas, where pulmonary doctors and medicine specialists are almost absent, experts said.

Earlier on May 5, the state government had enforced the two-week lockdown enforced which was set to end on May 19 but after thorough consultation with health experts, the government has extended the lockdown for two more weeks. Sources said the State had exhibited a Test Positivity Rate (TPR) of 20 % but after nearly two weeks of lockdown, the TPR has now dipped to 18.2%. This apart, in another major development, the government has revised the period of relaxation for availing of essential commodities from 6 am to 12 pm daily to 7 am to 11 am.

However, Odisha’s response to health crises has been totally lackluster in the past. In 2016, at least 93 children in tribal-dominated Malkangiri district died of encephalitis between September and November and a year later, 53 people died of Swine Flu.

While the state’s Covid test positivity rate may have come down slightly from over 20%, witnessed over the last 10 days, the fact that around 56% of the 2.9 lakh Covid cases registered in the second wave are from rural areas offer little comfort to epidemiologists and health experts.

There is the problem of severe understaffing in the primary health centres. Of the 1,326 sanctioned posts of doctors in primary health centres, only 917 have been filled up, while in community health centres, there are only 253 doctors for the 1,529 posts sanctioned. In district headquarter hospitals, there are 1,094 doctors for the 1,427 posts. Similarly, there is severe understaffing of paramedical staff.