Dikhyaa Mohanty 
To prevent and check the hoarding and black marketing of medicines and other medical supplies essentials for the prevention of Covid-19, the Odisha Government constituted a three-member committee.
According to the report, the Special Secretary Home Department issued a notification by citing that this issue has come to everyone’s notice and with the second surge of the Coronavirus in Odisha which has raised a major concern due to the soaring cases in the state. Due to which some unscrupulous elements were found in the hoarding and black marketing of medicines and other medical supplies essential for the treatment and prevention of Covid-19.
The report further added that the committee will have Additional DGP, CID, CB, Odisha as the chairman, an officer not below the rank of Joint Secretary from the Health Department shall be one of the members and the Drugs Controller, Odisha shall be the Member-Convenor. Even the district level authorities shall monitor the position of availability of essential medical supplies and also take corrective action as deemed fit.
The above Committee will supervise the district-wise position of availability of essential medical supplies and ensure that the officers conducting the raids, search and seizure get full cooperation from various agencies, especially Police, wherever required, to prevent any hoarding and black marketing.
As per the latest data released by the State Information and Public Relations Department, Odisha recorded 3144infections four fatalities in the last 24 hour. The Coronavirus cases in Odisha has surged to 3,64,594 while the death toll rose to 1,942. The active cases in the state are at 19,077 while 3,43,522 patients have been cured or recovered.
Out of the total cases detected in 30 districts of the State, a total of 1823 cases were reported from quarantine centres while the rest 1321 were local transmission cases. As per the data of the State Health and Family Welfare (H&FW) Department, four deaths were reported from Bolangir, Jharsuguda, Kalahandi and Sambalpur districts.
On April 16, Sundargarh reported the highest 523 cases while Khordha stood second in the list with 497 cases. Seven other districts reported a surge of over 100 cases in the last 24 hours- Nuapada- 395, Bargarh- 156, Sambalpur -149, Cuttack -140, Puri -129, Keonjhar -128 and Jharsuguda -119.
Similarly, districts that reported cases above 50 are Nabarangpur (96), Balangir (92), Jajpur (76), Mayurbhanj (68), Gajapati (67), Kalahandi (53) and Bhadrak (51), added the Health Department.
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