Focus on fundamentals

DESPITE the spike in the number of COVID-19 cases in Odisha in the first fortnight of August, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has expressed confidence that the State will soon turn the situation around. In his address at the Independence Day celebrations, Patnaik commended the role of COVID warriors in ensuring low fatality and high recovery numbers in the State.

The Odisha government has been striving hard to extend all possible assistance to those who have contracted the infection. As the number of cases rises, the administration has ramped up testing, tracing and tracking across the State. Testing laboratories have been set up in different regions to collect and test samples. Rapid antigen testing camps have also been set up in urban areas and places with high population density.

With 50,421 tests conducted on August 16, Odisha was positioned at No. 5 in the country in terms of testing numbers. By August 17 midnight, the State had totally conducted more than 10 lakh tests. On August 18, Naveen Patnaik tweeted: “Glad to share that we have crossed one million COVID-19 test milestone. Thank everyone who worked tirelessly to scale up testing facilities in short time and ramp up testing expeditiously to intensify our fight against the pandemic and save precious lives.”

In terms of tests, Odisha was doing 1,096 COVID-19 tests per million per day, which was the highest among the larger States, according to senior government officials. The national average was 542. The officials said that the State intended to further increase testing in a phased manner and that the positivity rate had started coming down drastically.