Odisha orders complete shutdown in three COVID-19 hit districts

The Odisha government announced a curfew-like complete shutdown in three hotspot districts of Balasore, Bhadrak and Jajpur from 10 pm on Thursday to conduct active surveillance and contact tracing for COVID-19.

Chief Secretary A K Tripathy said all activities will remain suspended for 60 hours till 10 am on April 26 during the shutdown in the three districts, which will be like a curfew.

All shops dealing in essential commodities will remain closed during the period barring some select medicine stores, he said.

"We were compelled to take the step because of the extraordinary situation created following the detection of 29 COVID-19 cases within a span of only five days in these three districts," the Chief Secretary said.

Odisha has reported 87 confirmed cases of coronavirus so far, including one death.

Tripathy said a similar complete shutdown imposed earlier in Bhubaneswar for 48 hours in the first week of this month had yielded good results as no COVID-19 case has been detected from the state capital since April 14.

Stating that the situation in these districts has become a cause of concern for the state, he said since most patients have West Bengal links concrete steps have been taken to seal the border with the neighbouring state to prevent unauthorised entry.

As many as 27 platoons (one platoon comprises around 30 personnel) of forces have been deployed on the border and more police personnel will be sent if necessary.

The DGP and senior officials have already reviewed the situation, he said, adding that active surveillance and contact tracing will be undertaken in these areas during the shutdown.

Sample testing in these areas will be increased at least three times and all primary and secondary contacts of patients will be subjected to COVID-19 tests, he said, adding that all probable contacts of positive cases will undergo coronavirus test.