People landing In Bhubaneswar will be Quarantined: BMC Commissioner

Bhubaneswar: The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) Commissioner has said those arriving in the state capital from hotspot districts will have to be quarantined. Those arriving in slums here from hotspot regions will also have to undergo mandatory institutional quarantine.

The BMC Commissioner Prem Chandra Chaudhary said the situation is under control since coronavirus cases are concentrated in one or two pockets.

Chaudhary said of the 274 positive cases, 25 patients are from other states and they are not Bhubaneswar residents. He said they have landed in the capital city for work and tested corona positive during home quarantine.

The BMC commissioner said 39 employees of a private hospital have been infected and the hospital has been sealed. He added that 10 hospitals were issued a show-cause notice for violating coronavirus management norms.

According to BMC notification, after the relaxation in lockdown conditions and opening up of economic activities in Bhubaneswar, people have started coming from other districts to work and mostly they reside in the slum areas. It is observed that few returnees from other hotspot districts (District having more number of Positive cases) to Bhubaneswar have been found positive for COVID-19. Such returnees if asymptomatic can affect many others as social distancing is Practically not possible in slum areas because of small houses and high population density.

Therefore in the larger public interest, the returnees from following Districts to slum areas of BMC will be kept in institutional quarantine for the specified period of 14 days from the date of return from other districts.

1. Ganjam
2. Cuttack
3. Balasore
4. Gajapati
5. Jajpur

The information of such returnees will be captured by the active slum surveillance teams on daily basis. The zonal deputy commissioners of BMC shall obtain this from the slum surveillance team and take step to shift them to the institutional quarantine centres. Simultaneously, the zonal deputy commissioners shall obtain such information from the slum committees also about the returnees from these districts.

As soon as reports of such returnees come to the notice of the ZDCs from any other source also, they should shift them to the quarantine centres. The ZDCs should send a daily report to BMC in this regard for record.