Unlock Process To Begin In Odisha From Tomorrow; Partial Lockdown To Continue

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government on Wednesday announced partial lockdown in the state up to 5 am on July 1.

The ongoing lockdown will end at 5 am on Thursday.

Chief Secretary Suresh Mahapatra informed that shops will remain open between 6 am and 5 pm in 17 districts. In the rest 13 coastal districts, shops for essential goods will open between 6 am and 1 pm. Only restricted activities will be allowed.

The Districts have been divided into two categories:

Category A: 17 southern and western districts where positivity rate is 5 per cent or less Category B: 13 coastal and interior districts having high positivity rate

The government has also decided to continue with night curfew and weekend shutdown, he said.

The Chief Secretary further that the restrictions on marriage, cremation, meetings, social gatherings, the opening of temples will continue as before.

“Morning walk, jogging will be allowed from 6 am to 9 am, but the parks and gyms will remain closed,” he said.

Cinema halls, swimming pools, malls, salon and parlour will remain closed. The prohibition on movie shooting and jatra will also continue.

“Keeping in view the livelihood of milk farmers, the government has decided to open sweet shops. They can only give parcels. The cycle and automobile spare parts shops will also be allowed to open,” he said.

Street vending for takeaways will be allowed in only 17 districts under Category A.

“All essential services, transport of goods, industrial activities, construction activities will be allowed,” he said.

All education institutions and coaching centres will remain closed. There will be no inter-state or intra-state movement of buses, he added.

The Chief Secretary also sought cooperation from people to win this battle against COVID through timely detection of cases and proper treatment.

“Odisha had seen a surge in COVID cases with the advent of monsoon last year and we have to abide by COVID appropriate behaviour to avoid a repeat of the same,” he added.