BHUBANESWAR: The state government on Saturday announced to enforce night curfew in 10 western Odisha districts from Monday till further orders in view of rising Covid infections.
Between 10pm and 5am, all shops, commercial establishments, offices, institutions will remain closed while movement of people will be prohibited in Sundargarh, Jharsuguda, Sambalpur, Bargarh, Balangir, Nuapada, Kalahandi, Nabarangpur, Koraput and Malkangiri which are in close proximity of Chhattisgarh. The restrictions won’t apply to emergency services, industrial and construction activities, the order issued by chief secretary Suresh Chandra Mohapatra said.
The government curbs on districts close to Chhattisgarh comes amid daily infections in the neighbouring state crossing 4000 and active cases there soaring up above 31,000, the third highest among states after Maharashtra (3.89 lakh) and Karnataka (34,000).
From around 60 to 70 new infections per day in the first two weeks of March, Odisha’s daily new infection count has crossed 450 in past two days, a bulk of which are being reported from western Odisha, which share borders with Chhattisgarh. While 452 more people were found Covid positive for the virus on Saturday, 461 had tested positive on Friday.
Besides Khurda, which reported 77 new cases on Saturday, western districts of Sundargarh (75), Nuapada (71), Kalahandi (29), Bargarh (19) and Jharsuguda (17) reported high number of positive cases on Saturday.
The state’s active cases increased by more than four times in past two weeks from 627 to 2820. Apart from Khurda, which leads among districts with 407 active cases, the highest number of active cases are in Nuapada (332), Sundargarh (307), Kalahandi (243) and Bargarh (220).