Odisha govt announces 14-day lockdown in these districts

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government on Thursday announced 14 days lockdown starting Friday 9 pm till July 31 midnight in Ganjam, Khurda, Cuttack, Jajpur and Rourkela Municipal Corporation area.

Aggressive surveillance, testing, tracing, isolation and treatment will be taken during this lockdown, informed chief secretary Asit Tripathy.

Offices and institutions, shops and commercial establishments will remain closed with few exemptions.

Vegetable, grocery and milk shops will open from 6 am to 1pm every day, said an order of Special Relief Commissioner (SRC).

Airport, railway stations and bus terminal will continue to function. Road transport on highways and goods movement allowed.

Home delivery of foods through Zomato, Chilika Fresh, Swiggy, OPOLFED will continue to function.

All medical establishments including government and private hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, including medicine stores will function during the lockdown as well as movement of ambulance and all medical personnel including doctors and paramedics will be allowed.

“Movement of Public Transport, private vehicles and taxis (including cabs by aggregators like Ola, Uber, etc.) to and from airports, railway station and bus terminals/ stands/ stops, for facilitating movement of passengers by air, rail and road,” said the order.

The government also allowed operations of E-commerce establishments such as Flipkart and Amazon.