Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday said as per his government’s basic principle of ‘Every life is precious, his government will pool all available resources to ensure proper healthcare to children.
While launching a training programme for doctors on paediatric care on virtual platform, Naveen said, “We have to be extremely cautious as there have been reports of possible third wave and it has a high probability of impact on children. It’s going to be a real challenge, if such a situation arises, and we need to be prepared.”
Stating that his government has approved an action plan to create infrastructure including equipment and medicine for paediatric care, he said training of the doctors for paediatric care is very important to ensure capacity to treat children.
Keeping an eye on the possible third wave, the state government has designed this training programme for general duty medical officers and nursing officers.
The Chief Minister further said that Covid-19 pandemic impact has been devastating across the world. Many countries have been affected by multiple waves of the Covid infection. India has also been severely affected by two waves of Covid infection.
“Since more than one year, Odisha has been on high alert, to tackle the pandemic situation. We have taken pro-active steps to contain the spread of the virus,” he further said.
Saying that the State has established a large network of government and private Covid hospitals across the districts to provide free quality treatment to the people, he thanked the efforts of all the doctors and healthcare community for ensuring timely treatment to the Covid patients.
The CM said that the infection rate has currently come down and the situation is under control. However, there have been reports of possible third wave, and its possible impact on the children, he added.
He expressed happiness over the vertical capacity building in the state and for the administration rising to the occasion, and train the entire range of health staff, starting from specialists to frontline functionaries within a short span of time.
The CM thanked the people of Odisha for cooperating and supporting the fight against this pandemic.
Speaking on the occasion, Chief Secretary SC Mahapatra said that the state has been able to show great efforts in providing free treatments for Covid patients. This training programme will be hugely beneficial for doctors and paramedics, he added.
During the occasion, Patnaik also launched several Covid training capsules, awareness video and pocket book for frontline workers.
Three doctors Sagar Dalai from Sundergarh, Sarat Chandra Samal from Ganjam and Udaya Jyoti Mallick from Cuttack interacted with the Chief Minister and spoke about the benefits of training for treating Covid patients.
They said that Odisha is the only state where oxygen is available at periphery medical facilities. A short video film on capacity building for Covid was screened.
Secretary to CM (5T) VK Pandian moderated the programme. Women & Child Development Principal Secretary and State Coordinator for capacity building for Covid, Anu Garg gave the welcome address and MD, IPICOL BS Poonia offered the vote of thanks.