Odisha On COVID-19 Alert: CM Orders One-Week Lockdown Of 5 Districts, 8 Towns

Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Saturday declared a near-total lockdown in five districts and eight urban localities for a week from Sunday in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

The lockdown period will remain in force from 7 am on March 22 to 9 pm on March 29.

The CM said that more than 3,000 people have returned to their home state recently from foreign countries that are plagued by the novel coronavirus. Of these returnees, the majority are from Khurda (including Bhubaneswar), Ganjam, Cuttack, Kendrapara and Angul districts. Hence, the state government has decided to declare a near-total lockdown in all urban localities and villages in these five districts. 

Apart from this, the lockdown will also be enforced in the urban localities of Sambalpur, Jharsuguda, Balasore, Rourkela, Bhadrak, Puri, Jajpur Road and Jajpur Town, he said.

The CM, however, added that during the lockdown, train and flight services will continue while hospitals, clinics, medical shops, grocery shops, restaurants (only takeaways and home deliveries) vegetables, meat and milk shops/bread and bakery (but selling of tea and other beverages in the same premises have to be closed), railways, bus stands, airports will be open as also public transport, administration, police, health, Fire, ODRAF, electricity, water, municipal services, banks, ATMs and filling stations shall remain open along with private establishments that support the above services or are linked to the fight against coronavirus.

In the five districts and the eight towns, all distribution of benefits such as social security pension and PDS is postponed for the time being. The collectors of these districts are empowered to add or delete any sector/service to this list based on local assessment.

“Private companies will be advised to encourage work from home. In case they cannot do so and need to continue, they need to get a certificate from the concerned collector to continue,” Naveen said, adding that all service providers including private sector engaged in COVID-19 will be declared as emergency workers.

“The four and a half crore people of Odisha are my family and their lives are priceless for me. I request the people of my state to extend their full cooperation and support the decision of the state government in this critical junction by staying indoors for the safety of their family and friends. By doing this, we can win this battle,” he added.

The CM also warned that police have been directed to take appropriate action against violators of the government order.