Panic gripped locals and workers of various industrial houses when a DGM-rank officer of Nalco died of Covid-19 in Angul district.
The officer succumbed to the disease after he returned here from Brahamapur along with his wife, who is a Professor at the Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology (VSSUT) in Burla. The Health Department is carrying out his death audit.
After his death, contact tracing and disinfection was carried out at the Nalco and VSSUT. The functioning of VSSUT was also suspended for a day.
Meanwhile, eight persons were detected positive from the industrial establishments in Angul. Due to increasing number of cases in industrial units, the Angul Collector has ordered for quarantine facilities to be kept in readiness.
The Collector asked Nalco, NTPC/ TSTPS Kaniha , NTPC/ TTPS Talcher , JSPL Angul, JITPL Kaniha and Tata Steel BSL Mersmundali , to keep the facilities in readiness so that they can accommodate the employees or other personnel coming to the plant area and township from other places for a period of 14 days till situation gets normalised.
However, Congress leader Sushmita Bherea said the virus is spreading in the industrial units due to flouting of Covid -19 guidelines of the Central and State Government. Behera demanded that the industrial authorities most conduct a comprehensive health survey of their entire workforce.