Will Odisha Govt Lift Weekend Shutdown? Announcement Of August Guidelines Tomorrow

Bhubaneswar: With daily COVID infection showing no signs of abetment in some districts, a situation for complete unlock is yet to emerge in Odisha, Director of Medical Education & Training (DMET) CBK Mohanty informed on Friday.

The state is under lockdown since May 5 and the ongoing partial lockdown will end in the next 48 hours.

“The guidelines for August will be announced tomorrow,” he added.

In the last few days, Odisha has seen a dip in daily COVID caseload and the test positivity rate (TPR) has remained below 3 per cent.

Khurda, however, continues to be in the red zone with 4661 active cases followed by 2191 cases in Cuttack. Jagatsinghsingpur has the highest TPR of 6 per cent while Puri comes a close second at 5.1 per cent.

Mohanty further said that the situation in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar has stabilised with daily caseload dropping to 400 from around 500 reported earlier.

The Odisha capital has 2158 actives. Cuttack city, which is reporting a lesser number of cases than Bhubaneswar, has 1152 active cases.

He, however, warned against any complacency amid the possibility of a third wave.

“The dropping TPR does not mean that we can lower our guards as it would then trigger a third wave of the pandemic, which is otherwise avoidable,” he said.

Speaking to the media, health expert Niroj Mishra advocated for the lifting of the weekend shutdown in the twin cities for supporting livelihood. Night curfew, however, should remain in force, he said, stressing micro containment measures in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar to contain the daily caseload.

“If a person gets infected, the entire family contracts the virus. In such a case, the entire surrounding should be tagged as a micro-containment zone to check the spread of infection,” he added.

Mishra further said that only fully vaccinated people should be allowed to resume business in malls, if the government decides to reopen them from August 1. However, food courts inside the malls should continue to remain closed, he added.