Institutional quarantine for returnees from hotspot districts: BMC

Bhubaneswar: People returning to the slum areas of Bhubaneswar from COVID hotspot districts including Ganjam, Cuttack, Balasore, Jajpur and Gajapati will have to stay in 14 days institutional quarantine, informed an official on Friday.

Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) Prem Chandra Choudhary on Friday announced the new quarantine rules to contain COVID-19 in its jurisdiction.

He said it is observed that few returnees from other hotspot districts to Bhubaneswar have been found positive for COVID-19.

Such returnees it asymptomatic can affect many others as social distancing is practically not possible in slum areas because of small houses and high population density.

 “Therefore, we have decided that people arriving from hotspot districts have to undergo mandatory institutional quarantine and home quarantine will not be allowed in slum areas from today onwards. They will be kept in institutional quarantine,” he added.

The BMC Commissioner further said that slum committees have been constituted and transit homes have been created for discharged patients.

House to house survey is being done to identify the vulnerable people and the Sachetak’ App also has been launched for the senior citizens.