No community transmission so far in Odisha, says Chief Secy

Sambad English Bureau Published On : Apr 5, 2020 at 2:17 PM

Bhubaneswar: Amidst fear over community transmission of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in Odisha, Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy made it clear that the state has not progressed to stage-III of the deadly infection due to lockdown and social distancing measures.

“There has been no community transmission of COVID-19 in Odisha so far, ” Tripathy reiterated today.

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Addressing a presser on Sunday, the state bureacracy chief said, “since the travel history of fifth COVID-19 positive patient was not found initially, we were fearing that number of persons found positive due to community spread. But, we proved it wrong during shutdown. ”

The fifth case in Surya Nagar area has the travel history to Kolkata where one of his family members had stayed four days recently. Similarly, three persons in Bomikhal area of Bhubaneswar have been infected due to their link with Bhopal.

The contact tracing exercise and social distancing measures helped the authorities to identify the sources of infections.

“We will make containment zones if we found positive cases anywhere in the state, ” Tripathy said laying emphasis on imposement of shutdown in several places including Twin City Bhubaneswar and Cuttack and Bhadrak municipal areas.

He said that district administration has been given the power to shutdown the places in concerned districts by announcing the area containment zones.

“Wherever hotspot will be found, that area will be under containment to fight COVID-19,” He said.

As the 48-hour shutdown scheduled to conclude in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Bhadrak town at 8.00 pm tonight, Tripathy urged people not to rush to groceries and markets in a large volume. The government may take action for violation of lockdown guidelines.

“Even after shutdown, people are requested to abide the lockdown rules and avoid gatherings. Because social distancing is the only weapon for containment to fight the deadly virus. Or else, they will face stricter measures like shutdown, ” he warned.