COVID-19: Odisha govt extends lockdown to 14 districts

Bhubaneswar: In view of the COVID-19, the Odisha government on Monday announced to extend lockdown to 14 districts in the state.

“We are extending lockdown to full districts of Puri, Nayagarh, Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur, Bhadrak, Balasore, Dhenkanal, Sambalpur, Jharsuguda districts from tomorrow morning”, said a government spokesperson.

Notably, five districts — Khordha, Cuttack, Ganjam, Kendrapara, and Angul — as well as municipal jurisdiction of Puri, Rourkela, Sambalpur, Jharsuguda, Jajpur, Jajpur Road, Bhadrak and Balasore are under lockdown from 7.00 am on March 22 till 9.00 pm on March 29 to combat spread of COVID-19.

Making changes in the earlier lockdown order, the government has removed railway stations and bus stands from the exempted category for internal transport. Now railways and bus transport is completely blocked in the entire state.

Bus services within Odisha have been suspended from 11 am on Tuesday in view of COVID19.

City bus services in all the urban areas will also be suspended from today midnight.