India News | COVID-19 : Slum Dwellers from Other Districts to Be Quarantined in Bhubaneswar
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. With COVID-19 cases rising alarmingly in the city, Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC)) Friday said the people returning here from hotspot districts within Odisha will also have to undergo institutional quarantine for a fortnight.
Bhubaneswar, Jun 26 (PTI) With COVID-19 cases rising alarmingly in the city, Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC)) Friday said the people returning here from hotspot districts within Odisha will also have to undergo institutional quarantine for a fortnight.
The people coming to slums in Bhubaneswar from hotspot districts of the state will now have to undergo mandatory institutional quarantine, BMC Commissioner P C Chaudhury said adding they constitute 33 percent of the city's population.
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"It is seen that most of the new cases found in Bhubaneswar have travel history to other districts which emerged as the hotspots in the state," he said adding the order on institional quarantine for people from hotspot districts has already been passed.
The BMC in its notification said that the slum dwellers returning from the high virus load districts like Ganjam, Gajapati, Balasore, Jajpur and Cuttack will have to remain in 14-day institutional quarantine.
Chaudhury said though people returning from other states were asked to undergo institutional quarantine, it has now been decided that the returnees to slums will remain in official isolation. The state capital has reported as many as 274 cases of which 132 are active and 138 recovered from the disease. Three elderly persons from the state capital have succumbed to the disease.
He pointed out that out of the 274 coronavirus cases, 25 are not residents of the state and are in the city for work.
The situation in Bhubaneswar the state capital is under control but the floating population was posing a big problem, he said.
At least 16 trains and 12 flights arrive in the city every day. A total 8,681 people have returned to Bhubaneswar from other states and abroad till now and 2,791 among them were still in quarantine, he said.
Referring to COVID-19 infection in private hospitals, Chaudhury said 39 employees of a private medical facility here have tested positive forcing the administration to seal it.
He said three teams are engaged in inspection of hospitals to oversee whether COVID-19 guidelines are being followed and at least 10 hospitals have been issued show cause notices for violating COVID-19 management guidelines.
He said 8,681 people had returned to Bhubaneswar from other states and abroad till now and 2,791 among them were still in quarantine. The BMC in its fight against the contagion has been focusing on slum dwellers, elderly persons and pregnant women. Different ward committees have been formed to look after about 5,000 elderly persons whose sons and daughters are staying in other cities.
He said volunteers are engaged to look after the elderly and banks have been told to reach senior citizens instead of making them visit the financial institutions. Slum committees have been formed and active surveillance have been carried out in Subhas Nagar Basti and Saliasahi slums and different strategies have been adopted to keep the city free from the pandemic, he added.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)