'We salute you': Sudarsan Pattnaik honours frontline warriors with beautiful sand art

Padma Shri awardee and sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik recently took to Twitter and gave a tribute to COVID warriors for their relentless work and services amid the ongoing pandemic. He made gorgeous sand art at the Puri beach in Odisha. With his art, he urged his followers to salute and remember the efforts of the warriors. The mesmerising sand art featured sculptures of the essential workers including doctors, police officers and sanitation workers.

Sudarsan Pattnaik's tribute to COVID warriors

While captioning the post, Sudarsan wrote, “WE SALUTE YOU.” Several fans of the sand artist hailed the COVID warriors for their services and acknowledged their work done towards the country while helping the people amid the coronavirus pandemic. One of the users praised the ‘health care professionals, workers, ambulance drivers as real hero's who are working tirelessly. Another user also saluted the selfless work done by the doctors, frontline workers during the virus surge. A third user chimed in and lauded their efforts. “Valuable message for all... We should respect them,” the user wrote. Another user thanked the sand artist for creating marvelous sand art as a tribute to COVID warriors. 

Meanwhile, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on May 2  declared working journalists of the state as frontline Covid warriors. While approving a proposal to this effect, the chief minister said, journalists, are doing a great service to the state by providing seamless news feed and making people aware of coronavirus-related issues. "They are a great support for our war against COVID- 19," a statement issued by the Chief Minister's Office said. The decision would benefit over 6,500 journalists. 

COVID tally in Odisha

Odisha on May 2  registered 8,015 new COVID-19 cases, pushing the tally in the state to 4,62,622, while 14 fresh fatalities raised the toll to 2,068, a health department official said. Of the 8,015 new cases, 4,568 were reported from various quarantine centres and the rest were detected during contact tracing, he said. Khurda district, of which state capital Bhubaneswar is a part, reported the maximum number of fresh cases at 1,275, followed by Sundergarh at 735 and Angul at 525. Other districts which reported over 100 cases include Cuttack, Sambalpur, Jharsuguda, and Puri.

(Image credit: @sudarsansand/ Twitter) (With inputs from PTI)