JAJPUR/PURI : A day after Jajpur and Puri reported two COVID-19 cases, the administration on Saturday sealed the villages of patients and put both the districts under extensive shutdown. The Jajpur district administration on Saturday sealed Brahmabarada village under Rasulpur block and notified it as a containment zone after one positive case was detected in the area. The patient had attended the Tablighi Jamaat event in New Delhi last month. 

The person is currently under treatment at Ashwini hospital in Cuttack and all seven members of his family have been quarantined in a Government facility. He had come in contact with 13 people within the village and outside and his contact tracing is on, Collector Ranjan Kumar Das said. The village will be under complete shutdown till Sunday midnight during which people will not be allowed to step out of their houses. Police deployment has been done in the village.

The village and areas within the radius of three km have been sanitised by fire fighters. Besides, Jajpur and Vyasa Nagar municipalities, Chandikhol, Panikoili, Sadakpur, Neulapur and Charinangal villages and areas under 10 block headquarters of the district have been completely shut down for 48 hours from 8 pm on Saturday. Only medicine shops will remain open.

Similarly, Danagahir in Pipili, from where a coronavirus patient was detected, has been declared a containment zone by Puri Collector Balwant Singh. The administration has also ordered shutdown of nearby Jaipur Sasan and Jaipur village chowk for 10 days beginning Saturday.

Jajpur, Puri also shutdown  

The administration will provide medicines and other essentials to residents who have been asked to stay indoors. On the day, police teams were deployed in the area to enforce the shutdown. The coronavirus patient had attended the Tablighi Jamaat event at New Delhi. The Collector said his contact history is being traced and efforts are on to identify the persons who came in contact with the patient.

It is also learnt that two persons from Puri town, who returned from the religious gathering at Delhi’s Nizamuddin Markaz, have been put under quarantine. Their family members have also been advised home quarantine.Following initial reports about identification of a coronavirus patient in Puri on Friday night, panic gripped residents who resorted to panic buying of essentials and vegetables anticipating shut down for weeks. Taking advantage of the situation, unscrupulous traders hiked prices of various essential items.

Meanwhile, the administration sanitised CHCs, PHCs and other medical facilities in the district. 
Sources said police and Intelligence sleuths are on the look out for persons who returned from the Markaz. This apart, the administration has asked the SHG workers across the district to inform authorities about persons who returned from the Delhi event.