Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is understood to get forward of the curve. Round this time final yr, when your complete nation was weighing the professionals and cons of lockdown after the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, he was the primary to announce its imposition within the state, a lot earlier than even the Union authorities may make up its thoughts. His administration went on to determine devoted hospitals in report time, constructed the well being infrastructure, handed over authority to panchayati raj establishments and made use of IT to information its decision-making. In doing so, the state created benchmarks in tackling the scourge of an unknown virus that had even probably the most developed nations of the world in a bind. On Sunday, when Naveen addressed the individuals of Odisha and made a fervent pitch to not decrease their guard in opposition to coronavirus, he was once more taking the lead. His handle got here on the eve of 1 yr of the primary Covid case detection within the state.
The Odisha chief minister has mastered the artwork of tackling disasters and his attraction reveals a deeper understanding of crises as a result of going again to lockdowns—or perhaps a Maharashtra-like state of affairs—is way from excellent. Quite the opposite, Naveen has set his sights on a zero-Covid state of affairs for which he sought elevated cooperation of individuals in adhering to security protocols. To attain that, it might be vital for the state to take a recent view of its testing and surveillance methods. Regardless of not being high-risk, Odisha has discovered point out by the Centre for its low RT-PCR checks. Presently, it conducts every day checks within the vary of about 20,000 and a bulk of it’s antigen testing, which makes little or no sense. The state’s Well being Division has cried itself hoarse to lift the testing numbers however in useless. Moreover, there may be little or no surveillance by districts on inward circulate of individuals from the 5 states that had been marked out by the Centre lately for a spurt in Covid circumstances. Whereas resurgence of the virus has been alarming in lots of states, Odisha at present studies nearly 60-odd circumstances a day. It is usually as a result of the Naveen administration had adopted a cautious strategy with out speeding into unlocks when different states had been in a rush to confide in put the economic system again on monitor. Having come to this point within the Covid battle, it might be unwise to squander the positive aspects.
