ROURKELA: The Rourkela main road area, which was recently freed from the containment zone tag, continues to keep Sundargarh district administration and Rourkela Municipal Corporation (RMC) on tenterhooks as the troubled locality sees no respite from surging Covid-19 positive cases.The containment tag was lifted prematurely from the area, which is inhabited by members of a particular community, following violent protests by locals. But the regular emergence of positive cases has become a worry for the administration.
The entire main road area was declared a containment zone on April 26. However, violent protests broke out in a particular locality over lifting of the restrictions on May 26. Hurriedly, the RMC removed the containment tag from the area in two phases with the most troubling portion of the thickly-populated ghetto getting freed on May 30. Since then, six fresh cases have emerged from the locality.
Sources said hours after the containment tag was lifted on May 30, one person tested positive. On June 1, another case (a car mechanic) was detected from the locality followed by four others on June 3. The administration claimed that all the new coronavirus patients were in home quarantine. However, the claim came under doubt when the car mechanic reported for duty at an authorised servicing centre at Vedvyas of a noted four-wheeler brand on June 1 before his swab test result was out. A few hours later, his Covid-19 status was found to be positive and all 43 employees of the servicing centre were hurriedly quarantined at BPUT temporary medical centre (TMC).
Denying the claim that the containment tag was lifted from the area prematurely, Sundargarh Collector Nikhil Pawan Kalyan said the fresh cases had come in contact with previous patients and there was no local transmission. On Thursday, the administration admitted that the troubled locality of Rourkela main road area reported four new cases while one was detected from Bisra block. So far, the area has reported 28 positive cases with the particular troubled spot alone accounting for 26 cases. Currently, the total positive case count of Sundargarh stands at 74 including 39 recoveries.