BHUBANESWAR: With a continued surge in COVID-19 positive cases in the north and coastal districts, the State Government fell back on drastic measures, imposing a 60-hour shutdown of Balasore, Jajpur and Bhadrak from 10 pm on Thursday till 10 pm on Sunday. Announcing the decision, Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy said the three districts had become a cause of  serious concern for the Government. Of the 29 Covid-19 cases reported in the last five days, 28 are from these districts. They have reported 33 Covid-19 cases so far. 

“Most of the cases in the region are linked to West Bengal. Therefore, a decision to go for complete shutdown has been taken,” he said. On Thursday, six more persons, including four from Jajpur and two from Balasore, tested positive. While the number of total confirmed cases rose to 89 in the State, Jajpur has 12 cases, followed by 11 in Bhadrak and 10 in Balasore.

The Chief Secretary said that sarpanchs have been asked to identify those with recent travel history to West Bengal while urging people to voluntarily disclose themselves. “People with recent travel history should voluntarily come up, failing which action will be taken against them,” he warned. He said that three senior IAS officers have already been deputed to the districts to improve preparedness and surveillance. As many as 27 platoons of police have been deployed in the borders to ensure no one enters the State without scrutiny. “More enforcement will be sent and the borders sealed if required,” he said.

Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) PK Jena said that detection of significant numbers of positive cases in these districts in last few days requires aggressive contact tracing, quarantine, testing and isolation as well as containment in the interest of health of general public. The SRC said, all offices, shops and establishments in the three districts will remain closed except hospitals, police, fire and ambulance service, telecom services, petrol pumps and medicine stores identified by the district authorities, water supply, sanitation and sewerage, electric supply and distribution.

Railways and sea port for cargo operations, IT-ITES, call centres relating to Covid-19 management as identified by the  authorities will also remain open. Movement of vehicles with essential goods will carry on unrestricted. Manufacturing units of essential goods and production units along with load and unloading of vehicles which require continuous process with in-situ labour will continue with adherence to social distancing norms.

Pradhan welcomes shutdown decision 
Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan has welcomed the State Government’s decision to shutdown Balasore, Bhadrak and Jajpur districts in view of the spurt in Covid-19 positive cases in these areas. The Union Minister has urged the people of these three districts to follow the decision of the Government properly to defeat the deadly virus. “Cooperate with police and administration. Staying at home is the only way to defeat coronavirus,” he tweeted.