Rayagada/Report by Sidhartha Dash : Rayagada was the lone district in Odisha being in green zone till June 2. For Rayagada in green zone, the credit went to the law abiding people of Rayagada, PRI members and the proactive administration. 1st Covid-19 positive case was identified on June 3. A girl aged around 20 came back from Delhi by a bolero jeep alongwith six other passengers on 25th May. As she belonged to Oduguda village, which is within the city limit, she stayed in her home for three days after which she moved to a rented house in Rama Krishna Nagar. Both places where she stayed were declared as containment zones. Fifteen swab tests were done from Oduguda village along with her mother and traceable contacts. She was sent to COVID hospital. Fortunately the girl was cured and all the swab reports came negative. The 1st case was handled extremely well by the district administration under the leadership of Sri Pramod Kumar Behera, Collector & Sri Amrit Ruturaj,IAS, PD-DRDA-cum-COVID-19 Nodal Officer. The efforts were complemented by Dr.Sarvana Vivek M, IPS, SP, Rayagada.
Since June 3 till yesterday 141 persons have been identified as positive out of which 123 have been recovered with one death. So the recovery rate is 87%, which is above the state & national average. The woman who died was suffering from multiple myloma cancer.
To contain this dreaded virus, the district administration has taken up various steps like strict cheeking at boarder points like Kerada boardering AP, not allowing vehicles and persons at different boarder roads, stopping of buses from hot spots like Ganjam, Bhubaneswar, etc, declaration of containment zones once even a single case crops up, totally sanitizing several areas with regular intervals. There is regular vigilance of masks, helmets by police. The fish market has been shifted to a more open space at GCD ground. The situation in Bijayapur village in Sirijholi GP under Gunupur block, where a super spreader was responsible to infect around 90 persons, is normal now after most of the positive people after treatment have become negative. Curfew at night from 7 PM to 5 AM is in vogue. Lock down after 2 PM and shut down in the weekends have really proved to be a boon. Section 144 under CrPC was promulgated each time a shramik special train arrived in Rayagada. Ward committee and Covid management committees are constituted at municipality ward and GP levels for active surveillance.
Collector alongwith senior officials supervised their arrival and safe despatch to various places. CDMO was also placed in quarantine and the entire district headquarters hospital was sanitized when the vaccine officer was found positive. Unfortunately a child specialist doctor was found to be corona affected and serious necessary steps were taken by the district administration. Collector Behera always gives a press briefing in his office chamber each time after corona positive cases are found in the district.
