Odisha on Thursday reported six new COVID-19 cases, four in Jajpur district and two in Balasore, taking the total to 89.
The four persons from Jajpur who had tested positive were family members of those who had returned from West Bengal and tested positive earlier, while the two cases reported from Balasore were contacts of a COVID-19 case detected earlier, the State government said.
While contact tracing of the six patients was initiated immediately, the State government deputed three of its senior officials to oversee the containment measures in the districts of Balasore, Bhadrak and Jajpur.
These three districts have reported as many as 33 cases till Thursday and a majority of them include those who had recently returned from the neighbouring State, their family members and close contacts.
The State government ordered a 60-hour-long complete lockdown in the three districts, starting from 10 p.m. on Thursday, to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus. Legal action would be taken against those violating the shutdown, the government said.
The capital city of Bhubaneswar, which comes under Khordha district, has recorded the highest number of cases in the State so far, 46. As on Thursday, 10 of the State’s 30 districts had recorded COVID-19 cases.
Of the total 89 cases as many as 33 had been discharged from hospitals after treatment by Thursday. While one patient had died earlier, 55 persons are under treatment at different exclusive COVID-19 hospitals.
Meanwhile, the State government’s high level inter-ministerial committee on the pandemic decided to increase testing to 3,000 samples per day by the end of this month. A total of 15,984 samples had been tested in the State till midnight on Wednesday.
The meeting, held via video conferencing, also discussed the implementation of a special plan that had been drawn up to deal with the emerging situation in the districts of Balasore, Bhadrak and Jajpur.
The Ministers also emphasised the role of gram panchayats with regard to registration of Odia migrant workers who are expected to return to the State in large number in the coming weeks.
As many as 32 COVID-19 hospitals have been made operational in the State, with a combined bed strength of 5,276.