Bhubaneswar, August 21: The Odisha government has asked the district collectors to formulate area-specific strategies to contain the Covid-19 spread, said an official on Friday. Taking a district-wise review meeting, chief secretary Asit Tripathy asked them to identify the exact cause of the spike in Covid positive cases and roll out area specific strategies to contain the pandemic.

"The rate and cause of the spread in disease differ from one area to the other. The nature of spread in rural area becomes different from that of the urban and city area. The border areas with neighbouring states also have their own uniqueness," said Tripathy. COVID-19 Tally in India Crosses 29 Lakh Mark With 68,898 New Cases in Past 24 Hours, Death Toll Rises to 54,849.

He said the collectors must rework their own district specific strategies and should keep on updating the approach with the changing situation. He ordered that the spike in cases in rural areas should be contained within a week. Development commissioner Suresh Chandra Mohapatra said, "Since the Covid positive patients with co-morbidity are more vulnerable to developing serious health complications, each district must have a robust strategy to take them to the hospitals at an early stage for proper treatment." COVID-19 Vaccine Update: India to Start Phase 3 Trial of Coronavirus Vaccine Today or Tomorrow, Says NITI Aayog Member.

Pradeepta Kumar Mohapatra, additional chief secretary in the health department, said an expert body with experienced medical professors is now functioning in the state for providing critical care advice to the doctors. The treating physicians in different districts should be in active contact with the experts team for containing the mortality rate, he added.

Special Relief Commissioner Pradeep Kumar Jena advised encouraging home isolation of asymptomatic or mild symptomatic positive cases instead of burdening the Covid care centres and hospitals. The chief secretary directed that the Covid hospitals should be kept free for treating the patients requiring critical care. The total Covid positive cases have increased to 72,718 with the detection of 2,698 new cases. The virus claimed 10 more lives in the last 24 hours as the death toll reached 390 in Odisha.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 21, 2020 07:24 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).