BHUBANESWAR: Odisha on Thursday joined the growing list of states which are reimposing lockdown to check the alarming spread of coronavirus and announced extension of curbs in the four worst-affected districts of Ganjam, Khurda, Cuttack, Jajpur along with Rourkela city till July 31. The 14-day lockdown would come into effect from 9 pm of July 17. Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy said the decision was taken in view of the rapid rise in cases and high case-load in the four districts and Rourkela Municipal Corporation area.
As high as 66 per cent of the total cases of the State are from Ganjam, Khurda, Cuttack and Jajpur districts while 90 per cent of the cases in Sundargarh district have been reported from Rourke l a M u n i c i p a l Corporation. “Aggressive surveillance, testing, tracing, isolation and treatment will be done during the lockdown period,” he said. Out of the total 15,392 cases in Odisha, the four districts have reported 8,509 cases till date with the number of active case at 2,845. While Ganjam district tops the list with 4,867 cases, Khurda has so far reported 1,594 cases. The cases in Cuttack and Jajpur districts stand at 1,114 and 934 respectively. Sundargarh district has reported 750 cases so far out of which about 90 per cent patients are from Rourkela city.
The Chief Secretary said during the lockdown period, all shops and commercial establishments, offices and institutions will remain closed. Besides, mobility of people will also be restricted. Medical establishments including Government and private hospitals, clinics, nursing homes including medicine stores will, however, remain open, he said. Allaying fears of closure of shops supplying daily essentials, he said grocery, vegetables and milk outlets will remain open from 6 am to 1 pm everyday during the lockdown period. Home delivery of food, grocery, vegetables, egg, fish, meat and other essential items by restaurants and aggregators like Swiggy, Zomato, OMFED, Chilika Frsh and others will continue. The Chief Secretary announced that no vehicle will be allowed to enter the Twin City of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar unnecessarily.
However, movement of goods and goods carriers whether loaded and unloaded, public transport, private vehicles and taxis (including cabs by aggregators like Ola, Uber) to and from airports and railway station and bus terminals/stands/stops will be allowed. Ecocomic and other activities like agriculture, horticulture, fisheries, animal husbandry, veterinary services will continue. Besides, all industrial units, factories, construction activities, IT/ITeS units with bare minimum staff for critical operations will remain open.
Stating that operation of hotels and hospitality units, including their associated offices, movement of staff and associated personnel will be allowed, the Chief Secretary said that dhabas along the national and State highways/major roads can function for takeaway only. Petrol pumps, CNG stations and LPG, including their bottling, distribution and retail outlets, operations of e-commerce establishments such as Flipkart, Amazon including their warehousing and delivery activities will be exempt from the lockdown restrictions. Tripathy announced that any person violating the lockdown guidelines will be liable for action in accordance with the provisions of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 and Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897.
