BERHAMPUR: Ganijam witnessed a rapid surge in Covid-19 positive cases with 61 returnees testing positive - 43 on Friday and 18 by Saturday evening - in the last 24 hours.
All of them were symptomatic. The district’s tally now stands at 89. Migrants from high-risk states like Gujarat, Maharastra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala continue to fuel the numbers in the district that was in green zone until a week back.
With rise in numbers, headache for the administration has gone up too and it has clamped prohibitory orders under Sec 144 prohibiting movement of people within 100 metres of the centres.
This was necessitated after inmates in several quarantine centres were seen moving out of the facilities to take bath in ponds, buying tobbacco products from shops besides relatives visiting the centres to hand over food packets and other things. Collector Vijay Amruta Kulange directed inmates of the centres to maintain discipline and social distancing norms.
On the day, 5T Secretary VK Pandian also exhorted all returnees to follow Covid protocol. During a video conferencing with the Collector, he said there is no community transmission in the district since migrants are being checked for symptoms akin to Covid-19 and quarantined immediately after their arrival in the district.
Pandian also interacted with sarpanchs of various blocks over the quarantine facilities in their panchayats. “Odisha has earlier successfully dealt with Nizamuddin cases, migrants from West Bengal and with support of sarpanchs, the current situation arising out of returnees can also be handled”, he told the sarpanchs.
Meanwhile, a group of social activists alleged that people in general and returnees in quarantine centres are not following social distancing guidelines.
The number of positive cases is likely to rise further as reports of 200 returnees from various quarantine centres are awaited, they said.
Despite ban on buses carrying migrants home, many vehicles are allegedly skipping check posts and taking a detour to drop people at less-guarded places far away from quarantine centres. From there, the migrant workers are walking back to their villages.
11 migrants rescued
Berhampur: Kasinagar police in Gajapati district rescued 11 migrant labourers of Madhya Pradesh who were trying to cross the district border on Saturday. They were sent to a quarantine centre at Siali.
The workers were engaged at a construction site at Gunupur and when their employer stopped providing them food and shelter, they decided to walk back to their native places. They had begun walking earlier this week.