BHUBANESWAR: The Covid-19 tally of the State Capital crossed the 9,000 mark, 48 hours after going past 8,000, in the fastest two-day surge as blatant violation of safety guidelines and social distancing norms kept the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation on tenterhooks.
On the day, a joint enforcement squad of BMC, Bhubaneswar Development Authority and City Police sealed a restaurant on Cuttack-Puri bypass near Pandra after it was found that around 60 people had gathered for a birthday party in violation of the Covid-19 regulations of the State Government which has prevented dine-in service in hotel and restaurants during Unlock 3.
During raid, the BDA officials said, it found that alcohol was also being served at the function.
Officials attributed such violations of guidelines as the major cause behind the rapid spread of Covid infection in Bhubaneswar where it is yet to peak. In fact, experts suggest that the peak may come somewhere in September.
On Friday, as many 354 cases were reported and combined with yesterday’s tally, more than 700 cases have come in two days.
Of the 354 new cases reported from different parts of the city in the last 24 hours, as many as 202 contracted the virus from unknown sources. Death toll due to Covid infection also mounted to 38 after two more fatalities during this period.
While blatant violation of guidelines and norms fuelled the numbers, asymptomatic cases aided the spread as the transmission led to cluster outbreak in many localities. A police battalion of the city has reported more than 50 cases this week including 17 in last 24 hours.
Spread of infection among the frontline police personnel also increased concern for Commissionerate Police as well as BMC.
Large-scale gathering in markets without practice of social distancing norms in place has also sparked the fear of community spread. For last three days, the local contact cases from unknown sources has exceeded the number of cases having source of infection.
Apart from the 202 local cases in last 24 hours, the city reported 191 local cases and 137 quarantine cases on August 26 and 202 local cases and 183 quarantine cases on August 27.
An officer from the civic body said that the number of public awareness vehicles which was only 6 earlier has now been increased to 11 to intensify the drive. Municipal Commissioner Prem Chandra Chaudhary couldn’t be reached for his comments.
Second sero-survey begins
Bhubaneswar: The Regional Medical Research Centre (RMRC) in Bhubaneswar on Friday commenced the second round of serological survey in the city to establish whether there is any community transmission happening and prevalence of antibody among people. The survey was carried out by five teams comprising six to eight members in Sikharchandi slum area, Nayapalli, Unit-IX, Laxmisagar, Sabar Sahi, Haripur, Museum Colony, Biseswar slum, Sailashri Vihar and other places of the city during which 635 samples. Meanwhile, 36,82 new Covid-19 cases, biggest single day spike so far, were detected from all 30 districts in the State in last 24 hours. Of the fresh cases, 2241 were in quarantine and 1441 local contacts. Khurda topped the list in daily count with highest 775 cases, followed by 495 in Rayagada, 369 in Cuttack and 272 in Mayurbhanj. On the day, 2503 patients recovered taking the total recoveries to 67,826.