Odisha to conduct door-to-door health screening for Coronavirus symptoms as cases rise

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik led Odisha government on Monday announced the launch of a door-to-door survey from June 16 to identify people with Coronavirus symptoms. The survey will continue till July 31, National Health Mission (NHM) Odisha Director Shalini Pandit said.

'The new strategy will be helpful'

"As per the ICMR guidelines, state government is testing symptomatic persons and contacts persons of COVID-19 patients, so in that step, ASHAs and Health Workers will trace the persons with COVID-19 symptoms, through the door to door survey of every house in rural areas and slums of urban areas, so that persons having symptoms whall be tested as early as possible," she said.

Pandit further stated, "Earlier, one in every 200 asymptomatic persons was found positive for COVID-19 and now one in every 20 symptomatic persons is testing positive, as per the reports, the infection spreads more through symptomatic persons and it doesn't spread much through asymptomatic persons even if they tested positive for the virus, so this new strategy will be helpful to track more positive cases and they can be treated well."

"State government is giving more importance on testing of COVID-19, now testing is being conducted in 17 testing labs of 10 districts including Regional Medical Research Centre (RMRC), Bhubaneswar, the number of testing has crossed 2 lakh as on June 15th in the state," she added.

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'A model for the rest of the country'

The surveillance teams consisting of Anganwadi and ASHA workers will visit all households in 53,845 villages and slums in all the 103 urban areas to locate persons having COVID-19 symptoms. Odisha has so far reported 3,909 cases and 11 deaths.

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The NHM Director also claimed that the recovery rate in Odisha is 67% against the national average of 51%. "Odisha is a model for the rest of the country for its low mortality and high recovery rate," Pandit said, adding that this has been possible due to the cooperation by people and the involvement of the community in the fight against the COVID-19.

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(With agency inputs)