Propelled By 5T, COVID-19 War Room Remains the Core To Ganjam Model

Berhampur: The whole country is today dealing with the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. According to health experts, scientists, and medical professionals, the second wave aided with the Indian strain B.6.617, has been more infectious and lethal as we can see from the rapid surge in daily infection numbers which was not the case during the first wave of the pandemic. The same has been the story of Odisha as well, as the daily infections crossed over 10000 cases.

Having tackled the first wave of the pandemic successfully through the much applauded ‘Ganjam Model’, the Ganjam District Administration was well prepared to face the second wave of Covid-19 through a well-equipped COVID War Room (CWR) at the Office of the Sub-Collector, Berhampur.

“We are fighting a battle against pandemic and without a War Room, there cannot be a full fledged strategy. The Covid-19 War Room of the Ganjam District has been playing a crucial role in its fight against the pandemic. Ever since the setting up of the War Room, a systematic approach helped the administration in all aspects”, said Berhampur Sub-Collector Keerthi Vasan V.

The tech-driven CWR has been immensely helping us to ensure transparency and efficiency, he added.

The Covid War Room has been the centre of activities aimed at reducing the number of infections and providing the best services to the needy. Starting from data management to tracking the positive patients, the War Room has been the strength of Ganjam’s fight. Officers and staff of various ranks and cadres were roped in to man the CWR and were tasked with various responsibilities such as monitoring bed availability, transportation of Oxygen cylinders, updating patient status, collecting feedback, managing the 24×7 helpline numbers etc. The CWR has been operationalised under the 5T Framework of the State Government and a dedicated online dashboard- ‘SWOSTH’ (ganjam.swosth.in) has been piloted to monitor the status of all patients across the four Dedicated Covid Hospitals (DCHs) and 10 Dedicated Covid Health Centres (DCHCs) in real-time. Ganjam’s online Patient Management System is a first of its kind in the entire state where a team of Data Managers has been deployed by the CWR to all health facilities with a single focused task of updating patient information in real time.

In addition to this, the CWR also houses a 24*7 helpline No – 0680-2227000 that will connect Helpline Executives who will address the grievances of people round the clock. The helpline also collects regular feedback from patients and attendants on various aspects based on Mo Sarkar governance framework. Feedback related to quality of health care, food and accommodation is also collected on a regular basis and the same is shared with the concerned facility to help maintain their standard of services.

The CWR also monitors the oxygen availability in all Covid Health facilities and tracks the movement of oxygen vehicles round the clock for ensuring sufficient oxygen supply to cater to the requirement of various facilities. The CWR through its 24×7 Helpline, has also enabled a facility for the citizens to place requests for filling of private Oxygen cylinders and also to report black marketing of Oxygen cylinders. The CWR is ensuring that the supply of medical oxygen to people at a government-regulated price.
Besides this, a helpdesk is operating in each hospital to intimate the health status to the relatives and attendants of patients two to three times every day. Functioning of all such helpdesks is also monitored centrally by the CWR.

The learning from the first wave of the pandemic and strong community participation has helped the district administration to keep the pandemic situation under total control, Ganjam Collector Vijay Amruta Kulange said.