Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today assured the Union government of all support from the Odisha government in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic.
Speaking at the video conference by Prime Minister with the Chief Ministers of all states, Naveen said that Odisha’s administrative machinery is well prepared to deal with crisis situations.
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The Odisha CM said, “Over the last one year, the world has seen an unprecedented crisis due to the COVID-19 situation. It was a difficult year for every human being as the virus spread to all parts of the world. Families and societies have been affected not only in terms of health crisis but also severe impact on the economy and livelihoods as well.
We in Odisha are affected by disasters like cyclones almost every year. Our administrative machinery is well prepared to deal with crisis situations”.
Patnaik stated that controlling the pandemic and limiting its damage to a large extent has been done with the cooperation of the people of Odisha. He said that the health staff and administrative system have been working continuously throughout this crisis period.
“The rollout of the vaccine has been helpful in providing hope to our citizens that the end of the pandemic is nearing. We are ever grateful to the scientific community for developing vaccines at such short notice. It’s a matter of pride for us that India is leading in vaccine manufacture. We need to involve further the private sector in expediting the vaccination program.
The long period of this crisis has brought fatigue and complacency in following COVID health protocols. We need to be careful as multiple surges of COVID spread is the reality in many countries and as witnessed in many states in India as well,” said the Chief Minister.
“We cannot go back to the era of lockdowns. However, at the same time, we need to ensure that the virus spread is also contained through renewed efforts in awareness and enforcement. As a country with a huge population, achieving herd immunity will be a long process and in the meantime, we all need to be extremely careful,” advised Naveen.
