Eight more COVID-19 cases, including two women, were reported from Jajpur district in Odisha on Saturday. The total number of cases in the State has gone up to 157. While five of the fresh cases had returned from West Bengal, the two women were contacts of the returnees.
Contact-tracing and containment measures were ramped up in the villages where these cases were detected, the Health and Family Welfare Department said.
Health Secretary Nikunja Bihari Dhal urged the people returning from other States to observe physical distancing and quarantine rules. Violation of quarantine rules led to the emergence of the Katikata gram panchayat in Jajpur as a hotspot with 21 cases reported so far, he said.
Mr. Dhal said the five persons had returned to Katikata from West Bengal recently and the others had contracted the disease from the returnees, who violated quarantine and physical distancing rules. A total of 623 samples had been collected from the area, he said.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik held a video-conference with his Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka counterparts Y. S. Jaganmohan Reddy and B.S. Yediyurappa and discussed the return of Odia people stranded in their States.
The first train with 1,150 Odia people, which set out from Kerala on Friday night, would reach Odisha on Sunday morning. Another train would leave Gujarat for Odisha on Saturday night, officials said.
Fifteen of the 30 districts have so far reported COVID-19 cases, with five reporting the maximum number. The five districts are Jajpur with 48 cases, Bhubaneswar under Khordha district with 47 cases, Balasore, 20, Bhadrak, 19, and Sundargarh, 10.
Of the total 157 cases, 100 patients were admitted to different COVID hospitals, while 56 had recovered and one died.
Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy said the government would soon issue an order setting forth graded restrictions for different zones. The Collectors would consider the risk assessment while devising the local response, he said.
