Bhubaneswar, Mar 17 (IANS): Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday said there is a need to ensure that the coronavirus spread is contained through renewed efforts in awareness and enforcement.

"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," said the Chief Minister while addressing the meeting of Chief Ministers convened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

He said the state will continue to extent all support to the Union government in this fight against Covid.

"As a country with huge population, achieving herd immunity will be a long process and in the meantime we all need to be extremely careful," he added.

Patnaik said with the cooperation of people of Odisha, the government has been able to control the pandemic and limit its damage to a large extent.

Informing that the health staff and administrative system have been working continuously throughout this crisis period, he said the roll out of the vaccine has been helpful in providing hope to the 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 programme," he maintained.

As the long period of this crisis has brought fatigue and complacency in following covid health protocols, he said, "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."