BHUBANESWAR: THE coronavirus continues to spread rapidly in squatter settlements of the State Capital with 25 more positive cases being reported from three slums in the last 24 hours. The new cases included 10 from Salia Sahi, eight from Ganganagar slum and seven from Unit-VIII OCC slum. Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials said most of the cases were reported from quarantine.
At least 14 cases were detected in Salia Sahi between Monday and Tuesday. Besides, nine cases from Bhimpur, six from Badagada, five from BDA Colony in Chandrasekharpur and four from a private hospital, all related to quarantine, reported during the day. Members of Basti Suraksha Manch in Salia Sahi alleged that lack of proper isolation facility and BMC’s failure in ensuring institutional quarantine of primary and secondary contacts of positive cases are the main causes of spread of the virus in the slum. They alleged that though home quarantine is not allowed in the slum areas of the city, many persons are self-isolating themselves in homes.
In certain cases, BMC officials are not being able to shift all to institutional quarantine facilities, they alleged. BMC officials couldn’t be reached for their comments. As many as 137 new cases, including 24 local transmission, were reported in the city in the last 24 hours. Officials said contact tracing is on to find their source of infection and isolate primary and secondary contacts. With the new cases, the Covid tally of the city has increased to 3,354. A total 118 persons recovered on Wednesday.