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A day before the nationwide 'Janata curfew', the Odisha government announced on Saturday a "near total" shutdown in five districts and eight other prominent towns for a week to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
It will come into effect from Sunday morning, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said in a video message.
The districts that will observe near-total lockdown are Khurda, Ganjam, Cuttack, Kendrapara and Angul, while the towns include Puri, Sambalpur, Jharsuguda, Balasore, Rourkela, Bhadrak, Jajpur Road and Jajpur, Patnaik said.
These districts and towns were identified as over 3,000 residents have returned to these places from abroad in the past few days.
"The 4.5-crore people are my family. Please cooperate to defeat the virus. I have asked the police to take stern action against violators," Patnaik said.
