Ganjam wary of 2nd wave of Coronavirus infection

BERHAMPUR: As Ganjam gears up to celebrate Durga Puja, the district administration and health experts fear a possible surge in Covid-19 cases. Although the district administration has banned the setting up of makeshift Durga Puja pandals along the road, markets in the Silk City remained crowded, leaving officials concerned.
Collector Vijay Amruta Kulange on Tuesday asked officials to crack down on violators of norms.He added that not a single puja committee had applied for permission to organise Durga Puja after the administration imposed the ban on makeshift pandals.
“We were prepared to organise Durga Puja after filing an affidavit before the sub-divisional magistrate but we decided against it,” said Ram Kumar Patra, a puja organiser.
The district unit of BJP criticised the last-minute decision of the administration to ban puja along roads. “It has hurt the sentiments of the organisers,” BJP’s former district president Kanhu Charan Pati said. The decision could have been communicated to the organisers in advance, he added.
Citing the example of Kerala, Sunil Kotta, a private doctor, said there was a surge in Covid-19 cases in that state after Onam.
“We can’t rule out a possible resurgence of infections here,” he added. “It is up to the people to check the spread of Covid by taking precautions,” Radha Madhab Tripathy, a retired professor of community medicine, said.
The district’s Covid tally increased to 20,888 with the detection of 39 new cases on Tuesday, while recoveries touched 20,458. The toll remained 225 with no new deaths.