TNI Bureau: The Odisha Government intensified its drive against the spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic on Thursday, as it announced 14-day lockdown in 4 districts and 1 Municipal area.
Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy today announced complete Lockdown in Ganjam, Khordha, Cuttack, Jajpur districts & Rourkela Muncipal Corporation area from 9 PM tomorrow till midnight of July 31. Lockdown will be applicable to Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) area too.
However, essential services such as grocery/vegetable/milk shops will remain open from 6 AM to 1 PM.
During this lockdown, all shops & commercial establishments, offices and institutions shall remain closed and mobility of people restricted, with following exemptions:
- Grocery/Vegetable/Milk Shops will remain open from 6 AM to 1 PM.
- Home Delivery of food, groceries, vegetables, egg, fish, meat and other essential items by restaurants and aggregators such as Zornato, Swiggy, OPOLFED, OMFED, Chilika Fresh etc will be allowed during the lockdown.
- Agriculture, Horticulture, Fisheries, Animal Husbandry, Veterinary Services and allied activities will be allowed.
- State Government officials on emergency duty
- District and Municipal Administration/ Police/ Fire Services/ Government Officials on emergency duty
- All medical establishments including Govt. and private hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, including medicine stores. Movement of ambulance and all medical personnel including Doctors & Paramedics
- Reserve Bank of India and RBI regulated financial markets and entities like NPCI, CCIL, ATMs, Clearing Houses, payment system operators and standalone primary dealers, with bare minimum staff
- Movement of goods and goods carriers, whether loaded or unloaded
- All industrial units, factories and construction activities, IT/ITeS units with minimum staff
- Marriages and Funerals, with permission of local authority
Unnecessary vehicular movement will be restricted. Offices and Commercial Establishments will be closed during the lockdown period.
The decision to impose lockdown was taken as 66% of the total positive cases are from the above areas only.