Odisha government on Monday imposed night curfew in 10 districts of the state in view of the recent spike in coronavirus cases as 573 people tested positive for the infection, the highest single day increase so far this year, pushing its tally to 3,43,268, a health department official said.
Night curfew has been imposed from 10 pm to 5 am in Sundergarh, Bargarh, Jharsuguda, Sambalpur, Balangir, Nuapada, Kalahandi, Malkangiri, Koraput and Nabarangpur districts, he said.
All activities except essential services are prohibited during the night curfew period and violation of the order will invite punishment under the law, the official said.
Director of Health Service, Bijay Panigrahi said all those entering Odisha from Chhattishgarh in border districts will have to undergo Covid-19 test. The government has already issued directions to the authorities of all the districts concerned in this regard.
The state has witnessed steady rise in new Covid-19 cases for about fortnight. While the state on March 5 had reportedly only 91 new cases, its figure was 573 on April 5, the health department said.
The toll due to the contagion, however, remained at 1,922 as no fresh fatality has been reported since Sunday, the official said.
The state during the day also registered 215 recoveries taking the total number of cured persons to 3,38,150 which is 98.5 per cent of the case load. Odishas case fatality ratio stands at 0.55 while its positivity rate is 3.74 per cent, he said.
The new cases were detected in 28 of the state's 30 districts, with 337 cases reported from different quarantine centres, while the remaining 236 were local contact cases. Khurda district, of which the state capital Bhubaneswar is a part, reported the highest 96 cases followed by Sundergarh (80) and Nuapada (60), he said.
The state currently has 3,137 Covid-19 active cases which is 0.91 per cent of the caseload.
It has so far tested over 91.88 lakh samples for Covid-19, including 28,109 on Sunday.
Meanwhile, keeping in view the heatwave like condition in Odisha, the government Monday changed timings for Covid-19 vaccination at all centres. The vaccination will now be done from 8 AM to 12 noon and 3 PM to 6 PM with immediate effect, additional chief secretary to the Health and Family Welfare departmnt P K Mohapatra directed in a letter to districts and municipal authorities.
The state government also deployed 36 post PG doctors under chief district medical officers and public health officers of different districts for smooth management of Covid-19 work.
Ten PG doctors each will be deployed in Kalahandi and Nuapada districts and eight each in Malkangiri and Nabarangpur districts, health department sources said.
The government has also deployed 25 Ayush doctors in Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation area for Covid-19 management, the sources added.
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