Bhubaneswar: Denizens in the state capital, who were hoping that the lockdown curbs would be lifted after July 1, may now have to wait longer as the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) introduced two micro-containment zones here to contain the spread of coronavirus.
According to an order issued by the civic authority Sunday, two colonies – one at Bidhyut Marg and the other at Behera Sahi in Rudrapur – have been marked as containment zones. These zones have come up even after the daily Covid-19 cases in the city dropped to 300 as compared 1,000 cases per day a few days back.
“Twenty-five residential quarters in Bidyut Marg have been declared as quarantine zone as several positive cases were reported from the locality. Similarly, about 35 families have been asked to remain in quarantine after multiple cases were reported from Behera Sahi in Nayapalli. Both these colonies will remain under active surveillance and testing will be intensified in these areas,” a BMC official told Orissa POST.
It may be mentioned here that these clusters have erupted despite the BMC endeavouring to achieve the tag of ‘fully-vaccinated city.’
Meanwhile, certain slums here have also reported few Covid-19 cases, casting doubts over any relaxation in the lockdown. While the Test Positivity Rate (TPR) has dropped from 10% to 7%, sources at the BMC said that they are planning to increase daily testing to 5,000 from 4,000 tests currently being undertaken per day now.
According to another report, the TPR in several districts of the state is still above five per cent and this may be the reason for the authorities not to announce any major lockdown relaxations after July 1. While the TPR in Khurda and Cuttack districts is being close to 10 per cent, which is among the highest in the state, major relaxations in these districts seem to be a distant dream. During the last unlock, the state government had granted partial relief to the districts reporting TPR less than five per cent.
However, till June 27, as many as 11 districts continued to report TPR above 5 per cent. These districts include Khurda, Cuttack, Balasore, Bhadrak, Dhenkanal, Jajpur, Malkangiri, Mayurbhanj, Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur, Nayagarh and Puri. According to sources in the Health department, the government is likely to relax the curbs in districts where the TPR is below five per cent.
