Coming 15 days to be more challenging in handling COVID-19: Naveen

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday said the coming 15 days will be more challenging in handling the COVID-19 situation in the state.

"With opening up of flights and railways, the coming 15 days to a month will be more challenging but I am sure we will handle the same in a professional manner with a human face," said the Chief Minister while reviewing the situation in the state.

He said the spread of the pandemic can successfully be contained with strict social distancing, wearing masks and repeated hand washing.

"We are now two months into lockdown. There are many learning points in these two months both scientific, social and administrative. We have to restrategise our response based on these learnings so that we are ahead of the pandemic and at the same time bring normalcy in economic and livelihood activities," said Patnaik.

He said testing has to be smart to take care of the frontline workers and vulnerable population.

"I am happy to know that we are one of the leading states in testing in the country and that we could establish decentralised testing facilities in every part of the state," said the Chief Minister.

He said that temporary medical camps at gram panchayat level are doing a great job in containing the spread of Covid-19 as 95 per cent of positive cases are from quarantine centers.

"This shows the robustness of our system and the efforts put in sarpanches, people's representatives and the entire government machinery from top to bottom cutting across departments," he said.

The Chief Minister also praised the humane work done by police in providing transportation facilities for the migrants to ensure zero walking inside the state.

( With inputs from IANS )