Coronavirus: 7-hour night curfew in 10 Odisha districts from Monday

Jharsuguda, Sambalpur, Kalahandi are among the districts; 452 new cases pushed Odisha's Covid-19 tally to 3,42,224

In view of rising coronavirus cases, Odisha government on Saturday announced night curfew in 10 districts from Monday. 

The curfew will be imposed between 10 pm and 5 am from April in Sundargarh, Jharsuguda, Sambalpur, Bargarh, Bolangir, Nuapada, Kalahandi, Nawrangpur, Koraput and Malkangiri.

Meanwhile, Odisha's COVID-19 tally mounted to 3,42,224 on Saturday as 452 more people tested positive for the infection, a health official said.

As many as 267 new cases were reported in quarantine centres, while 185 infections were detected during contact tracing, he said.

Khurda district, under which Bhubaneswar falls, reported the highest number of new cases at 77 followed by Sundergarh (75) and Nuapada (71).

The state's coronavirus death toll remained unchanged at 1,921 as no fresh fatality was reported since March 30, while 53 patients have died due to comorbidities to date.

Odisha now has 2,820 active cases, while 3,37,430 people have recovered from the disease thus far.

The state has so far tested over 91 lakh samples for COVID-19, including 26,700 on Friday, while the state's positivity rate stands at 3.75 per cent, he said.

The state government is worried over a number of cases being reported in districts bordering Chhattisgarh, the official said.

While Nuapada reported 71 new cases, Kalahandi registered 29 fresh infections and Bargarh 19.

Odisha's Minister of State, Home, D S Mishra said the districts bordering Chhattisgarh are reporting a high number of cases because many people from these areas had last month attended a mega cricket tournament in Raipur.

The district administrations are keeping a close watch on the people visiting Chhattisgarh, he said.

The state government has inoculated over 2.5 lakh people on Friday, 50,000 more than the daily target. A total of 1,70,069 of the 2,52,080 beneficiaries were aged above 45.

"It is a good sign that people are coming forward to get inoculated. We are ready with the necessary infrastructure and plan to vaccinate 3 lakh people every day once the required number of doses are available.

"We have urged the Centre for more doses so that we can plan the sessions 15 days in advance," Additional Chief Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, P K Mohapatra said.