With five more new cases detected today, the number of jaundice-affected persons in Jobra locality here mounted to 30, officials said.
Identifying broken pipelines as the cause of jaundice outbreak in the city last year, the state government claimed that damaged pipelines in the town, including at Jobra were replaced at a cost of over Rs 5 crore.
But after a high-level meeting here on the day, the State Urban Development minister Pushpendra Singhdeo said pipelines in Jobra would be replaced again this year as the health department maintains that contaminated water was the cause of jaundice this year as well.
The meeting, held at the collectorate here, was also attended among others by the State health minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak and local BJD legislator Debashis Samantray.
Meanwhile, the district administration has decided to open round-the-clock health camps at Jobra to monitor the situation while, the three government hospitals in the city have been instructed to treat the jaundice patients free of cost.
Like last year, the city has been divided into 20 zones and nearly 200 squads are keeping tab on the situation.
Around same time last year, the city recorded over 150 jaundice cases and 3 persons had died from the water-borne disease.
