The Odisha government intensified its drive against the spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic on Monday as it put around 3 crore of the state's 4.5-crore population under a lockdown by extending the restrictions from five to 14 districts.
The government announced the suspension of all public transport services, including buses, taxis and autorickshaws, across the state from 11 am on Tuesday. It had already imposed restrictions on the movement of private vehicles from March 22-29, the period of the lockdown.
The city bus services in all urban local bodies, including the twin cities of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack, will also be suspended from Tuesday. The interstate bus services were stopped at 11 am.
However, essential services and goods transportation will continue as usual, a notification issued by the Health and Family Welfare Department said.
The state government had on Sunday put under lockdown the five most-populated districts -- Khurda, Cuttack, Ganjam, Kendrapara and Angul.
Now, it has also imposed restrictions in the districts of Puri, Nayagarh, Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur, Bhadrak, Balasore, Dhenkanal, Sambalpur and Jharsuguda. Areas under the Rourkela Municipal Corporation, including the steel township, are also under lockdown.
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With this, the total number of districts under lockdown increased to 14, said Subroto Bagchi, the state government's chief spokesperson on COVID-19.
Bagchi said the nine districts would come under the purview of the lockdown from 7 am on Tuesday till 9 pm on Sunday.
While the first day of the lockdown, which coincided with the nationwide 'Janata curfew' on Sunday, drew an overwhelming response, several people were seen venturing out on the second day in different places, including Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Balasore and Berhampur.
Bagchi said people must confine themselves to their houses in order to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus.
The spokesperson said 85 samples were tested till 2 pm on Monday and two were found positive for COVID-19.
The health conditions of both the COVID-19 patients are stable, Bagchi said, adding that 3,667 foreign returnees had registered their names in the official portal so far.
"It's reported that 56 persons had contact with one of the patients," he said. "Communication has been made with 53 people, while effort is on to trace the remaining three. Nine monitoring teams are working for the purpose."