Report by Badal Tah; Rayagada: Rayagada was the lone district in Odisha being in green zone till June 2. For Rayagada in green zone, the credit went to the law abiding people of Rayagada, PRI members and the proactive administration. 1st Covid-19 positive case was identified on June 3. A girl aged around 20 came back from Delhi by a bolero jeep alongwith six other passengers on 25th May. As she belonged to Oduguda village, which is within the city limit, she stayed in her home for three days after which she moved to a rented house in Rama Krishna Nagar. Both places where she stayed were declared as containment zones. Fifteen swab tests were done from Oduguda village along with her mother and traceable contacts. She was sent to COVID hospital. Fortunately the girl was cured and all the swab reports came negative. The 1st case was handled extremely well by the district administration under the leadership of Sri Pramod Kumar Behera, Collector & Sri Amrit Ruturaj,IAS, PD-DRDA-cum-COVID-19 Nodal Officer. The efforts were complemented by Dr.Sarvana Vivek M, IPS, SP, Rayagada.
Since June 3 till yesterday 141 persons have been identified as positive out of which 123 have been recovered with one death. So the recovery rate is 87%, which is above the state & national average. The woman who died was suffering from multiple myloma cancer.
To contain this dreaded virus, the district administration has taken up various steps like strict cheeking at boarder points like Kerada boardering AP, not allowing vehicles and persons at different boarder roads, stopping of buses from hot spots like Ganjam, Bhubaneswar, etc, declaration of containment zones once even a single case crops up, totally sanitizing several areas with regular intervals. There is regular vigilance of masks, helmets by police. The fish market has been shifted to a more open space at GCD ground. The situation in Bijayapur village in Sirijholi GP under Gunupur block, where a super spreader was responsible to infect around 90 persons, is normal now after most of the positive people after treatment have become negative. Curfew at night from 7 PM to 5 AM is in vogue. Lock down after 2 PM and shut down in the weekends have really proved to be a boon. Section 144 under CrPC was promulgated each time a shramik special train arrived in Rayagada. Ward committee and Covid management committees are constituted at municipality ward and GP levels for active surveillance.
Collector alongwith senior officials supervised their arrival and safe despatch to various places. CDMO was also placed in quarantine and the entire district headquarters hospital was sanitized when the vaccine officer was found positive. Unfortunately a child specialist doctor was found to be corona affected and serious necessary steps were taken by the district administration. Collector Behera always gives a press briefing in his office chamber each time after corona positive cases are found in the district. No mediaperson is allowed in the chamber as a precautionary measure as the briefing is shared by the DIPRO.
With a strict personal monitoring by Collector Sri Behera, 100-bedded COVID Health Centre at JK Pur is now fully equipped & operational with ICU facilities & ventilators. Apart from stray cases of complains from Gunupur & Kashipur, the quarantine centres are well managed by the concerned BDOs and monitored by Collector himself with several reality checks through sudden visits. The concern and care at the District Covid Health Centre at JK Pur and Covid care centres at Gunupur & Bissam Cuttack exhibited towards the affected persons can only be judged by a statement issued by one Mr.Satish.
“ Hello, I am Satish Ranjan Panda. I got discharged yesterday evening. I am extremely thankful to you and the hospital staffs for all the support & care. I have never imagined that a Govt establishment can be so beautiful and splendid. My initial days were completely stressful; but eventually everything seemed to be easy & smooth because of you. Salute to you Sir.” These kind of examples are aplenty. Collector Behera also submits that the district administration is open to constructive feedbacks to improve the situation in the district.
In the mean time, ICMR, New Delhi, in collaboration with Dept of Health and Family Welfare, GOI and National Centre for Disease Control with support from State health departments and key stakeholders including WHO, India had successfully conducted a community based sero-survey to estimate the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in Rayagada. The survey was conducted in randomly selected villages in eleven blocks of Rayagada. Venous blood samples were collected from randomly selected individuals (one per household) from 10 clusters of Rayagada district. Besides this community-based survey, Ministry of Health also initiated hospital-based surveillance to monitor the trend of infection in Rayagada.
The much awaited Covid testing centre by RMRC with adequate logistics like bio-safety cabinet, manpower was inaugurated by Sri Behera, Collector in the presence of Dr.Artabandhu Nayak, CDMO and other senior health officials. This has become functional for COVID-19 testing.
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