COVID Chronicles: Odisha Earns Applauds From WHO, Other Agencies For Efficient COVID-19 Management

Bhubaneswar: Odisha has made a significant development journey in terms of transformation under Naveen Patnaik led government from being a backward state to a happening state in the last two decades. Odisha, which once hit headlines for being prone to natural disasters and its inability to fight the situation, is now a leading state in the world in fighting natural disasters and emergencies. With the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, like all the countries and states, Odisha had to fight with another emergency health situation. This time the fight was more difficult and challenging as the State had to fight with an unseen enemy. And once again, hopeful eyes of 4.5 million people were pinned on Naveen Patnaik to weather the pandemic. As a true leader with a vision “For extra ordinary circumstance demands extra ordinary response”, came up with all innovative steps and practices to fight the unseen enemy which was new to the world. Starting from the initial days of the pandemic till now, Odisha under Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has been able to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic quite efficiently and earned national and international applauds. As of 15th November 2020, the state recorded an impressive recovery rate of 96.3% and the mortality rate of just 0.0049%, which is one of the lowest in the country.

Many international organisations including the highest body of the health in the world, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has heaped praises on the Odisha government for its efficient COVID-19 management, even though the state saw an influx of thousands of migrants and was also struck by cyclone Amphan during the crisis phase.

With cyclone AMPHAN hitting the state amidst the pandemic, evacuating the stranded people safely while adhering to social distancing measures was challenging but the state’s experience in disaster management helped in managing the situation. Effective governance in collaboration with Panchayati Raj Institutions and community-based response strategy enabled the resilient state to contain the spread of the virus. The state’s COVID-19 management strategy offers important insights that kept the caseload low despite the huge influx of migrants.

The WHO in its reports said, “Evacuating the stranded people safely while adhering to social distancing measures was challenging but the state`s experience in disaster management helped in managing the situation. Effective governance in collaboration with Panchayati Raj Institutions and community-based response strategy enabled the resilient state to contain the spread of the virus.”

It further said that the state’s COVID-19 management strategy offers key insights into how to keep the caseload low despite the influx of migrants. It also highlights other key features that resulted in a low number of cases, including Odisha being the first state to order the closure of many public places on March 13 even though the state had not a single reported case.

During the month of April 2020, the Centre d has also appreciated Odisha for being among top two states in controlling and combating the COVID-19 pandemic efficiently. Odisha was the first state in India to give Rs 15,000 cash incentive for declaring travel history.

Effective Governance

The WHO report also hailed Naveen Patnaik Government on lying down a strong and effective governance mechanism. “The state laid down a strong governance framework with ‘Empowered Group of Ministers’ for quick decision making and dedicated teams for social distancing, capacity building, containment strategy, isolation and treatment, and awareness campaigns. Each team is led by a senior secretary under the direct supervision of the Chief Minister for effective implementation of the preparedness and response measures. The dedicated teams put up a synchronized effort by working in close coordination with the Department of Health and Family Welfare.”, the report stated.

Robust Health Infra

The WHO also praised the Naveen Patnaik Government for building a robust health infrastructure in a record time. The state was the first in the country to establish one of the country’s biggest 1000-bedded dedicated COVID hospital with the Kalinga Institute of Medical Science and SUM Hospital established as model COVID hospitals, along with 30 dedicated district COVID hospitals (DCH) set up in all districts.

Teams from the WHO and United Nations (UN) also independently assessed the health facilities and shared their results with the concerned state authorities, following which the best performing COVID hospitals like Ashwini COVID hospital in Cuttack were recognized for their “state-of-art quality of care.”

“By the end of May 2020, the state managed to build a robust infrastructure with a capacity of 22,340 beds in the dedicated COVID health facilities, with an occupancy rate of only 8.86 per cent as of June 28, 2020. The assessment of infection prevention and control (IPC) parameters of COVID and non-COVID hospitals helped in adherence to the IPC protocols in major health facilities,” WHO stated in its report.

The government also deployed additional teams comprising administrative service officials, doctors, lab technicians and police personnel in high-risk districts including Ganjam, Khordha and Cuttack.

The start of telemedicine services at 41 health institutions that enabled patients to directly consult with doctors, and innovative digital platform helped in monitoring movement of cases and contacts, identification of containment zones and establishing dedicated call centres to address the public`s queries were also done.

Effective Monitoring:

Lauding the Odisha government’s innovative and holistic approach to deal with the pandemic, the WHO in its report said, “The government adopted multi-pronged approaches such as monitoring of migrant`s movement, issue of online e-pass, contact tracing, provision of food and accommodation, monitoring health and adherence to safety measures, etc. More than 18,000 temporary medical camps (TMCs) that also served as quarantine centres were set up to accommodate more than 800 000 migrants,” the report said.

An empowered joint team of public health experts, comprising of officials from State Health Directorate, medical colleges, WHO, UN agencies, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), and Indian Institute of Public Health (IIPH) and “Mentoring Support to program” was initiated to provide support to the various districts in COVID-19 surveillance and containment strategy micro plan implementation, gap analysis.
More than 180 000 doctors, nurses, paramedics, AYUSH, sanitary workers, police, frontline health workers, and volunteers were trained during the lock-down period.

Leveraging Technology

Digital application is leveraged in monitoring movement of cases and contacts. Identification of containment zones is also guided through a geographic information system (GIS). Sachetak mobile applications and WhatsApp services are being utilized to create public awareness and gather real-time information on the cases. State COVID dashboard shares real-time information on COVID-19 data and response measures. A health facility portal has also been created for monitoring the performance of COVID Hospitals, WHO said in its report lauding Odisha Government’s technological intervention to fight the pandemic.

Testing Strategy

The testing capacity of the state has also been enhanced from one functional lab to 19 labs now. As of 15th November, Odisha had tested a total of 52, 19, 014 samples with 5.9% positivity rate and 94.1% negativity rate.

Gram Panchayats are entrusted with the responsibility of isolating suspect cases. This decentralized approach has worked well, as identifying and isolating suspects was managed at the local level. Sarpanch, the elected representative of Gram Panchayats is empowered to take decisions that work best in their areas to contain the spread. Activities like provision of food materials at the doorsteps of the migrants were managed smoothly under their supervision.

Financial help, in the form of pension benefits provided four months in advance to older adults, disabled, and widows under national and state pension schemes, apart from benefits to encourage corona warriors, people in quarantine centres, and vulnerable groups. In yet another innovative step, CM Patnaik had also announced a financial package of Rs 50 lakh for all health workers.

Involvement of Self-help Groups – Mission Shakti

The national and international agencies have also praised the Odisha government’s initiatives taken to involve SHGs in fight against pandemic. WHO in its report stated, “The women led awareness campaigns across the state to reinforce the messages on social distancing, hand washing, and contributing to supplying essential commodities and cooked meals to poor and vulnerable during the lockdown. The SHGs came together to stitch a whopping more than 1 million masks in a record time to address the acute scarcity of masks. This also provided an opportunity to improve livelihood of the women.

Way Forward

The government has continuously kept its focus on reducing morbidity and mortality. Meanwhile, as of October 30, the state has 9827 active cases, while over 2.9 lakh patients have already been cured against the 3.7 confirmed cases and discharged as per the health Department website. The state has recorded 1510 deaths due to the disease so far.

Early lockdown, setting up the country’s first dedicated COVID-19 hospital, the temporary medical camps to manage the huge influx of migrants, multi-sectoral collaboration, community-based disaster management, community engagement and mentoring support programs are some of the key takeaways of the Odisha’s response strategy that have contributed to Odisha’s success in tackling the pandemic, WHO stated in its concluding remarks remarked while lauding Odisha Government.