Lockdown Effect: How Odisha kept people off the 'Coronavirus' grip

State was the first to announce and extend lockdown. It set up India's first two exclusive Covid hospitals, provided doorstep medical service, made masks mandatory in the war on Covid-19

Back in May 2019, the devastating cyclonic storm Fani pounded Odisha’s coast, the state authorities showed exemplary preparedness to deal with it by evacuating 1.2 million vulnerable people to safer zones.

By then, Odisha had grabbed the plaudits to deal with natural disasters. Months later, when a virulent Coronavirus disquieted nations beyond borders, Odisha lost no time to declare it a ‘state disaster’ on March 13 and switched on the war mode to save lives. The state machinery acknowledged ‘social isolation’ as the only ammunition to vanquish the virus and locked down people indoors for three weeks only to postpone