Forced institutional quarantine for shutdown violators in Odisha

Bhubaneswar: With enforcement of complete shutdown in Twin City Bhubaneswar and Cuttack as well as Bhadrak town as part of measure for containment of COVID-19 in Odisha, persons will be awarded a 14-day institutional quarantine for defying shutdown norms.

“Withdrawing an order by Ministry of Home Affairs, Odisha State Disaster Management Authority (OSDMA) has issued a new order in view of rapid spread of COVID-19 across the state. As per the revised order, people, who will not abide the 48-hour shutdown rules and will be found moving outside home, police and enforcement agencies will pick them up and put them in quarantine set up by the government at various institutions for a period of 14 days,” informed Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy today.

Addressing the presser, he said that action will be taken under the Disaster Management Act.

He urged people to stay at home and be safe from clutches of COVID-19.

Fearing community transmission following fifth case of COVID-19 detected with no travel history, the government announced a complete shut down from 8.00 pm tonight till 8.00 pm on April 5 to trace people suspected to have been infected with the deadly virus.

Under shutdown, all the services, which were opened during ongoing 21-day lockdown, will be suspended for 48 hours.

“We are switching to a higher stage of lockdown, known as shutdown, which is a kind of curfew. During lockdown, we had kept the essentials goods and services open. But, in case of shutdown, these services will remain shut till next 48 hours. However, medical services will be completely opened. The government has directed to restrict the medical services. During 48-hour shutdown, the number of medicine stores will be minimized. The local authorities will decide as to how many medicine stores will be allowed for functioning in next 48 hours. The ambulances services have been enhanced for emergency services,” DGP Abhay said.

He appealed to people not to go out of houses if they complain of mild complications. They can take help of telemedicine services in case of health related issues.

“Don’t panic. I don’t want to see thousands of people on the streets in Bhubaneswar buying things till next 48 hours. The purpose behind imposing shutdown is loud and clear,” the DGP said.

As the shutdown will be in force till next 48 hours from tonight, all the passes issued to vehicles for essential services during lockdown, will remain suspended in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Bhadrak.

“You can not move on the roads by showing the lockdown pass. A new shutdown pass will be provided to people coming under essential services. However, there will be no restrictions on movement of goods vehicles on national highways,” he added.

After 48-hour shutdown, the nationwide lockdown will continue to prevail from Monday till April 14.

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