Odisha Unlock Process Likely to Start From June 17, Curbs to be Eased in Districts Recording Low Positivity Rate

Bhubaneswar: With the corona cases going down steadily, the Odisha government is planning to start the unlock process from June 17 in a phased manner. The move from the state government has come after the Health and Family Welfare department said that the infection rate has come down in 23 of the coastal state’s 30 districts.

The lockdown which has been imposed in the state in three phases from May 5, will complete its tenure on June 17. In the wake of the second COVID wave, the government had imposed the lockdown from 5-14 May, which was first extended to June 1 and subsequently to June 17.

The state government further added that the restriction will be lifted in districts registering low test positivity rate (TPR).

Giving further details, Director of Health Service (DDHS) Bijay Mohapatra said told news agency PTI that the districts have been divided into three zones based on their test positivity rate. “One zone is having TPR above 10 per cent, another TPR 5-10 per cent while the third zone is having districts of TPR less than 5 per cent,” he added.

He also stated that the lockdown restrictions will be relaxed in the districts having less than 5 per cent infection rate while the restrictions will continue in districts having 10 per cent or more rate of infection.

However, the state government said that necessary action will be taken by the state for the districts having TPR of 5 to 10 per cent.

Though the number of active cases has drastically fallen in the Western and Southern region of the state, it is still alarming in nortehn districts (Mayurbhanj and Balasore) and Costal districts (Khurda, Cuttack, Puri, Jagatsinghpur and Jajpur).

In the past one week from 5-11 June, nine districts of Ganjam, Sonepur, Kandhamal, Deogarh, Bargarh, Gajapati, Sambalpur and Balangir reported test positivity rate of less than five percent.

Similarly, 13 districts of OdishaBhadrak, Jajpur, Khurda, Balasore, Cuttack, Puri, Dhenkanal, Kendrapara, Mayurbhanj, Angul, Sundergarh, Nayagarh and Jagatsinghpur have reported a TPR of above 10 per cent during past week.