Nuapada/Kalahandi: Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mahapatra on Saturday said everyone has to wear a mask to avoid lockdown and contain the spread of COVID-19 in Odisha.
“There is no restriction on movement of vehicles and goods. The infection spreads through people-to-people contact and therefore, it important to adhere to the safety protocols of wearing masks and maintaining social distancing,” he said during an interaction with officials at Nuapada.
He also apprised them about the penalty for not wearing a mask being doubled from Rs 1000 for the first two violations. “Be ruthless, don’t show any mercy after doing awareness on COVID norms for 2-3 days,” he added.
On the directive of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Chief Secretary along with Additional Chief Secretary Health and Family Welfare Pradeepta Kumar Mohapatra later visited COVID hospital and looked into the treatment facility, availability of medicines, beds, ICUs and other facilities in Kalahandi district.
He also reviewed the preparedness of the district for containing the spread of the second wave of COVID-19. “There are restrictions on the entry of people to Odisha from other state and the returnees are required to produced RT-PCR negative certificate or undergo a minimum of seven days isolation,” he said.
The chief secretary further said that steps are being taken to identify people with symptoms at the village level and conduct tests and isolate the positive cases.
“An ambulance with an advanced life support system will be deployed in Kalahandi. The COVID hospital will 90 beds and six ICU with oxygen facilities,” he said.
The appointed doctors will soon take charge, he added.
Night curfew is in force in these two districts, bordering Chhattisgarh. Nuapada has been reporting a spike in new cases since March 25 when 29 villagers tested positive for the virus. Till Thursday, Kalahandi and Nuapada had 398 and 286 active cases respectively.
