Odisha district doubles quarantine period as Covid-19 cases spike

Migrant returnees in rural areas of Odisha are normally placed under seven-day institutional quarantine and another week of home isolation, while in urban areas, a 14-day home quarantine is mandatory.

Authorities in Odisha’s Kendapara district on Wednesday announced doubling the period of mandatory institutional quarantine from seven to 14 days following a spike in Covid-19 cases.

Migrants undergo thermal screening in Bhubaneswar.(PTI)

Kendapara recorded nine new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, taking the tally of Covid-19 to 161 while Rayagada district which was so far untouched by the virus that brought all 30 districts of the state under the grip of the pandemic.

Migrant returnees in rural areas of the state are normally placed under seven-day institutional quarantine and another week of home isolation, while in urban areas, a 14-day home quarantine is mandatory.

“The institutional quarantine period was increased as the administration received complaints of violation of home quarantine by people who returned from other states,” Kendrapara district collector Samarth Verma said.

Click here for full Covid-19 coverage.

On Monday, Kendrapara had witnessed the highest single-day spike with 50 positive cases.

The increase in institutional quarantine period came on a day when 143 more cases were reported across Odisha taking the total Covid-19 tally to 2,388. The 143 new positive cases include 132 from quarantine centres while 11 are local cases.

Meanwhile, police in Jagatsinghpur district nabbed 52 fishermen who had returned from Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh but refused to undergo institutional quarantine. The fishermen had allegedly misbehaved with ASHA workers when they were asked to undergo health screening. The fishermen had gone to their homes in Sandhakuda slum of Paradip port shortly after coming back from Visakhapatnam following which they were forcibly taken to the quarantine centre.

“The local administration will seal the slum if the returnees try to violate the quarantine norms,” said Paradip Municipality Executive officer Dililp Kumar Mohanty.

In a related development, the Institute of Life Sciences said it has started the genetic study of Covid-19 with samples of 45 patients. A total of 200 samples will be examined and the report will be submitted in two weeks, said ILS director Ajay Parida.

“Some were predicting that summer will kill the virus, but it didn’t happen. These are just predictions that are being made based on the early trends of the virus,” he said.