Odisha extends lockdown till June 1

BHUBANESWAR: The state government on Tuesday extended the ongoing lockdown till 5 am on June 1 and further tightened curbs as the state kept reporting more than 10,000 fresh cases daily for a week. The lockdown which started on May 5, was scheduled to end on Wednesday.
The government reduced the time period allowed for grocery stores, vegetable shops and milk booths to stay open from the earlier six hours to four now.These will now remain open from 7 am to 11 am as against 6 am to 12 noon earlier, a government order said. For marriages, the government reduced the cap on gatherings by half from 50 to 25.
The gatherings on last rites and cremations will continue to remain 20. The government has also banned community feasting on all occasions, including marriages. “People can’t serve food to eat. They can give food packets to the invitees,” chief secretary Suresh Chandra Mohapatra said.
Lockdown has helped to keep infection in check: Chief secy
The complete weekend shutdown from 6 pm on Friday till 5 am on Monday will also continue, the government order said.
During the lockdown public transport and intra-state movement of public is banned, but people can use their own vehicles or auto-rickshaws and taxis to go for vaccination or Covid tests.
Justifying the extension of lockdown, the chief secretary said, “The timely lockdown has helped the state keep the increasing rate of infections in check. However, the daily infections continue to remain above 10,000 cases. The lockdown has to continue for some more days to keep the infections in check.”
Mohapatra said because of the lockdown measures the overall positivity rate of the state has stabilized and there has been decline in positivity in many districts close to Chhattisgarh such as Balangir, Sambalpur, Sundargarh, Kalahandi and Nuapada, which were earlier reporting a sharp increase.
Odisha on Tuesday added 10,321 fresh cases, taking active positive cases to 1,04,539 while 22 more succumbed to the virus, raising the toll to 2357. Odisha’s active cases now is the ninth highest among Indian states/UTs after Karnataka (6 lakh), Maharashtra (4.45 lakh), Kerala (3.62 lakh), Tamil Nadu (2.31 lakh), Andhra Pradesh (2.11 lakh), Rajasthan (1.76 lakh), Uttar Pradesh (1.49 lakh) and West Bengal (1.31 lakh). Odisha has more active cases compared to Gujarat (99,000), Chhattisgarh (96,000) and Madhya Pradesh (88,000).