Vaccinate Booster Dose To Doctors & Health Workers On Priority: Odisha Chief Secy

Bhubaneswar, Jan 9: Odisha Chief Secretary S C Mohapatra on Sunday issued a series of directives to combat the third wave of Covid infection in the state.
Reviewing the preparedness to check the third wave of Covid 19 on digital mode, the Chief Secretary directed to vaccinate the doctors, nurses and health workers deployed for Covid duty with booster dose on priority.
Mr Mahapatra directed that all covid hospitals and covid care centers should put in place help desk to facilitate communication between the patient and his family members and relatives.
The Chief Secretary said no patient should feel neglected in hospitals and all should be attended with much care, and love. The family members of the Covid patients should be communicated about condition of the patients regularly.
Mr Mohapatra directed the Collectors to visit the Covid hospitals personally and look into the arrangements like availability of medicine, man power, instruments, pathological test facilities, oxygen, seamless admission of the patients, proper treatment and ensure that best treatment is provided to the patients.
Additional Chief Secretary Health and family welfare Raj Kumar Sharma said that all facilities and provisions put in place for combating the second wave should be reactivated with full force.
He also asked the Collectors to recruit retired doctors and nurses locally as per the requirement. The CDMOs and Public Health officers were asked to go ahead with booster dose vaccination in all districts.
Official sources said 7181 oxygen supported beds, around 1000 pediatric beds, 2024 ICUs and HDUs, and 874 ventilators were already made available in all districts.
As of now, the state has 16,117 active positive cases out of which 15,640 patients are treated in home isolation and being managed by the rapid response team members.
The present trend shows that around 97 per cent of the patients can be managed without hospitalization. Only around 3 percent of the available beds, 11 percent of the ICUs and 3 percent of the ventilators are being used.
Chief Secretary directed officials to keep additional facilities ready so that it would be made available to patients as and when required.