Govt Announces 2-Day Shutdown in these Districts

Bhubaneswar: Taking note of sudden spike in COVID-19 cases, the Odisha government on Monday ordered for two-day shutdown in a week in 11 districts during the month of June.

Briefing the media here, Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy said that Ganjam, Puri, Nayagarh, Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Khurda, Jajpur, Bhadrak and Balasore will remain shut on Saturdays and Sundays.

He said that the decision was taken to prevent community transmission of COVID-19 in these districts, where 90 per cent cases have been reported from different quarantine centres.

WHAT WILL REMAIN CLOSED

Offices, commercial establishments, bus services, local transports and non-essential services.

WHAT WILL REMAIN OPEN

Healthcare services, hospitals, clinics, nursing homes and medicine shops.

Electronic media identified by district administration and police authorities will be allowed to commute freely on the roads. Train and flight services and goods movement will remain unhindered during shutdown period.

Apart from this, all police stations, fire stations and ambulance units, telecom offices and filling stations will remain open.

The state government will allow the movement of rail and air transport while IT, ITES and other hospitality sectors will be allowed to work within the limitations.

“Vehicle transport will be allowed for the people from railway stations and airports while for funeral activity, necessary permission has to be sought from the local authorities who will fix the number of people to be involved in the activity,” the chief secretary said.

He stressed adherence to social distancing guidelines in the sectors offering essential services.