Chhatrapur: After identification of 15 fresh positive cases in Khallikot block, Sunday morning, the Ganjam district administration has declared 10 villages as containment zones. Similarly 22 villages have been declared as buffer zones in the block. The two villages come under two separate panchayats.
Sources said COVID-19 test reports of 12 people belonging to Badapalli panchayat and three persons from Aaitpur panchayat turned out to be positive.
As a preventive measure to prevent the spread of coronavirus, the district administration has taken the steps informed District Collector Vijay Amruta Kulange.
The villages which have been declared ‘containment zones’ are: Godhapada, Sialiapata, Kurimapur, Gunduripalli, Badasanabala, Nuapalli, Chhakasingh, Debijhara under Badapalli panchayat and Biripur village under Aaitpur panchayat.
Notably, all the COVID-19 positive patients were residing in various quarantine centres.
The district collector has asked Khallikot additional tehsildar Joytrimaya Das to ensure that that movement of vehicles and people are suspended with immediate effect in the ‘containment zones’. Residents have been asked to stay indoors. All offices, both private and government, within the ‘containment zones’ will remain closed till further notice, the collector informed.
Block development officers (BDO) have also been directed to monitor the supply of medicines and other essential commodities to the people residing within the containment zones.
The 15 virus-infected people were shifted from their respective quarantine centres to the COVID-19 hospital at Sitalapalli, on the outskirts of Berhampur town. Firemen and municipality staff carried out the sanitisation work in the 10 villages Sunday afternoon.
District health department staff, ASHA workers, Anganwadi workers have also reached the villages to carry out several ancillary jobs including sample collection of people the infected persons may have come in contact with.
PNN