Odisha effectively conducting COVID-19 tests in private medical college hospitals: Former AIIMS Director

Odisha's response to the pandemic has seen increased testing, effective resource allocation, swift private sector partnerships, infrastructure set-up, capacity building of human resources in health care, and incentives for citizens to test. Due to this, Odisha’s COVID-19 management strategy is offering insights into effective pandemic management. In this regard, the former Director of AIIMS, Bhubaneswar, Dr. Ashok Mohapatra has given his reaction and said that Odisha’s COVID-19 management strategy is offering insights into effective pandemic management.

Bhubaneswar: The number of Corona positive cases is speedily increasing in the state with every passing day which has triggered an alarm in the state health department. The number of active cases is continuously breaking old records and creating new records and the surge in the rate of Corona infection is gradually becoming uncontrollable.

To cope with the increasing number of affected persons, accordingly, there is a need for conducting more daily tests. Odisha has taken advance steps to set up COVID Hospitals in Capital City and District Headquarters, which was regularly monitored by CMO.

Now, these facilities are coming to rescue of the people of the state. Since the beginning, the state’s response to the pandemic has seen increased testing, effective resource allocation, swift private sector partnerships, infrastructure set-up, capacity building of human resources in health care, and incentives for citizens to test.

In this regard, the former Director of AIIMS, Bhubaneswar, Dr. Ashok Mohapatra has given his reaction and said that Odisha’s COVID-19 management strategy is offering insights into effective pandemic management.

Dr. Mohapatra said, "The number of daily tests being conducted now was not the same as was being done in the initial stage in the month of February last. At present, about 6000 tests are being conducted in the state every day of which nearly 500 cases are positive. This number needs to be increased to ten thousand to fifteen thousand tests per day keeping in view the present surge of the pandemic in the state. the private Medical College Hospitals are not adequately equipped to conduct proper tests as yet. To conduct proper Corona tests, the required number of trained manpower, a sufficient number of Corona Kits, modern equipment including laboratory facilities are needed in the hospitals which should be approved by NABL ( National Accreditation Board for Testing and Collaboration Laboratories. Only when NABL accords its approval, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) would allow the COVID test."

"On the other hand, since the cost of each RT-PCR machine is Rs. 15 lakh, it is not possible for the private medical institutions to keep an adequate number of these machines. Because of these deficiencies, the Private Hospitals had not been able to fully equip themselves for undertaking the Corona tests. As per the decision of the State Government, a ceiling of Rs. 2200 has been fixed for the COVID test in private Laboratories. If the state Government will provide financial assistance to private hospitals, then an adequate number of COVID tests could be conducted in the private hospitals," Mohapatra said.

While the cumulative COVID testing of samples across the state crossed 3 lakh mark, nearly 1 lakh samples have been tested by the Regional Medical Research Center (RMRC) in Bhubaneswar. While only RMRC conducted COVID sample testing in, March, till now 19 laboratories across Odisha are conducting the testing. Meanwhile, 3500 COVID patients are undergoing treatments at various hospitals across the state. Several new cases are being detected every day in Odisha and a large number of patients are also discharging after their recovery from the disease on a daily basis. The overall COVID bed occupancy remained within 25 percent in the state.