Coronavirus | Odisha imposes night curfew in all urban areas

Complete shutdown announced on Saturdays and Sundays. Essential services given exemption.

After Odisha recorded 658% growth in COVID-19 cases in the last fortnight, the State government on Thursday announced night curfew in all urban areas across the State from Saturday evening.

The curfew will remain in force from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. in all urban areas and will be enforced strictly, Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mohapatra said, declaring measures to contain the pandemic.

Mr. Mohapatra said the restrictions are meant for people and not for goods movement. Essential services have been kept out of the purview of the curfew.

On April 1, the State reported a daily spike of 394 cases while it shot up to 2,989 on Thursday.

The government also announced complete shutdown on Saturday and Sunday and increased the duration of night curfew to 11 hours from eight in urban areas for an indefinite period in 10 districts which border Chhattisgarh.

The districts are Sundargarh, Jharsuguda, Sambalpur, Balangir, Nuapada, Bargarh, Kalahandi, Malkangiri, Nabarangpur and Koraput. The night curfew in these districts would start from 6 p.m.

“Night curfew is in force in the 10 districts. Despite strict restrictions on movement between Odisha and Chhattisgarh and a campaign launched on mandatory mask wearing, COVID-19 cases have been rising in the State,” he said.

“We had fared comparatively better in the first wave as we had fewer positive cases than other States. However, the country has been recording higher cases than any other country during the past few days. In neighbouring States especially in Chhattisgarh, cases have been rising rapidly.”

Chhattisgarh has close to one lakh active cases.

Only 50 persons should attend marriages and 20 cremations and no cultural, religious and political procession and congregation will be allowed. The government has ordered shutting down of religious places for general public while daily rituals would continue. Collectors have been asked to regulate affairs of religious institutions on case to case basis.

Mr. Mohapatra said the government does not want these restrictions to affect the livelihood of people. “All vendors in market areas will have to sit keeping a distance from each other. No person will be allowed to talk to the other person without mask. Shops will be sealed and licences would be cancelled of the violators.”

The government has also suspended inter-State bus transportation from April 19. Passenger bus movements with restrictions would be allowed inside the State.

The 100% attendance in government offices has been reduced to 50%. Private institutions including banks have been asked to carry out their operation with reduced manpower.

Earlier in the day, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had announced postponement of X and XII standard board examinations.

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