This story is from April 4, 2020

Odisha govt shuts down Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Bhadrak for 48 hours to check virus spread

On a day Odisha reported four new positive Covid-19 cases, the state government completely shut down the cities of Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Bhadrak for 48 hours – starting 8 pm on Friday – in a bid to contain the possible community transmission of the virus.
Odisha govt shuts down Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Bhadrak for 48 hours to check virus spread
Representative image
BHUBANESWAR: On a day Odisha reported four new positive Covid-19 cases, the state government completely shut down the cities of Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Bhadrak for 48 hours – starting 8 pm on Friday – in a bid to contain the possible community transmission of the virus.
Announcing the decision, chief secretary Asit Tripthay said, “The precautionary measure is taken to prevent community spread of the virus because these places have reported all the (nine) cases in Odisha.”
Out of the nine Covid-19 patients currently in hospital, seven are from Bhubaneswar – including three brothers who tested positive on Friday – and one each from Cuttack and Bhadrak.

Barring hospitals and select medicine stories, everything else will remain shut during the 48-hour period. The OPDs in hospitals will also be closed. All shops including those selling groceries, vegetables, fruits, milk as well as business centres and other establishments will remain closed, the government order specified.
The shutdown will have an impact on around 20 lakh people residing under the municipal areas of Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Bhadrak besides 14 village panchayats around the state capital.
Appealing to the people to cooperate with the state government, chief minister Naveen Patnaik said, “These 48 hours are crucial for the administration. The officials will trace the contacts of those who tested positive, a key step in containing the spread of Covid-19. We have to make some sacrifices for the welfare of our family and friends and bear the hardships due to the shutdown.”

The government also suspended passes issued to various categories of professionals and vendors, except those associated with healthcare. Stating that the shutdown is nothing less than a curfew, DGP Abhay said, “Police will be forced to shift those coming out of their homes to government-run quarantine facilities for 14 days.”
Government’s Covid-19 spokesperson Subroto Bagchi said the decision to go for a complete shutdown was triggered by patients fifth and sixth. While the fifth patient is a 60-year-old man from Bhubaneswar with no travel history, the sixth one is a 30-year-old native of Cuttack who had gone to Delhi to take part in the Tablighi Jamaat. “The shutdown will help us to aggressively trace their contacts,” Bagchi said.
In case of the 60-year-old from Bhubaneswar, the government has found that neither he nor his close contacts have travelled outside the city in the last few months. He, however, had visited the OPDs of two private hospitals and AIIMS, Bhubaneswar for treatment. He was admitted to AIIMS between March 5 and 31.
The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation has, meanwhile, sealed the Suryanagar locality where the fifth patient’s residence is located. The man is on ventilator support.
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