Amid the rising COVID-19 cases, the State Government on Thursday ordered a complete shutdown in Baleswar, Bhadrak and Jajpur districts for 60 hours.
“A total of 29 confirmed cases have been reported in the State in the last five days; and 28 of the cases are from these three districts. Hence, aggressive contact testing and testing will be carried out in these districts,” said Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy.
The ever-increasing positive cases among the returnees from West Bengal have become a concern for the Government, he said.
The shutdown was imposed from 10 pm on April 23 till 10 am on April 26.
During this period, the Government would take measures, including contact tracing, to detect other positive cases. Testing would be tripled. All possible contacts would be tested. This apart, Sarpanches have been asked to identify the persons who returned from West Bengal but have not been detected yet. Public places would be sanitised during this period, the Chief Secretary said.
The shutdown would be akin to a curfew and all services, shops and establishments would remain closed like the earlier shutdown in Cuttack, Bhubaneswar and Bhadrak. Only some medicine outlets would remain open and their number would be decided by the district administrations.
The Chief Secretary said that during the shutdown in Bhubaneswar, the rising number of virus cases in the city had been brought under control. So, the technique would be applied in these districts.