Angul: With Angul district registering over 300 positive cases for three consecutive days, the district administration has taken some measures to break the chain of infection.
The district reported 393 positive cases Tuesday, 336 cases Wednesday and 325 Thursday.
In view of the COVID-19 graph’s upward trend, the district administration has declared the worst affected areas as ‘Containment Zones’ and ‘Red Zones’.
The district’s Talcher area has been reporting the maximum cases. Keeping this in mind, three places of Talcher block have been declared as ‘Micro Containment Zones’.
Similarly, two places under Talcher Municipality area have been declared as ‘Containment Zones’. These places will remain inaccessible for outsiders for the next seven days.
Likewise, two places of Chhendipada and Banarpal blocks have been declared as ‘Containment Zones’. The restrictions of movement will be in place for a week.
In order to intensify preventive measures in the worst affected areas, the administration has also identified such places and declared them as Red Zones.
There are 171 Red Zones in rural areas and 26 places in different wards of urban areas. Talcher block has maximum 36 rural areas coming under Red Zones, followed by Banarpal block with 34 rural areas, Kanihan block with 31, Angul block with 27, Kishorenagar block with 21, Pallahara block with 10, Athmallik block with eight and Chhendipada block with six places coming under Red Zones.
Most importantly, all the wards of Angul Municipality are under Red Zone areas. Similarly, Talcher Municipality’s ward number 10 and 17 and Athmallik NAC’s ward number 6 have been declared as Red Zones.
In order to carry out screening in these areas, special committees involving ANM, male health workers, ASHA and Anganwadi activists have been formed. These committees are presently carrying out the screening in the Red Zone areas, visiting door to door.
Meanwhile, businessmen of Angul, Banarpal and Chhendipada areas have come forward to help the district administration in its fight against the virus. At a meeting between the administration and the businessmen, it was discussed that all the shops will remain closed in afternoon hours.
Similarly, in Chhendipada and Banarpal, the businessmen will close their shops from 6:00 pm to 6:00 am. However, a decision on this will soon be taken.
When contacted, Angul District Collector Siddhartha Shankar Swain said that the Angul Businessmen Association has voluntarily come forward with the decision to close their shops. And their counterparts in Banarpal and Chhendipada will shut their shops from evening to morning. A decision in this regard will soon be taken.
Notably, the initial 100 bed capacity at the district’s first Covid Care Centre (CCC) at Panchamahal has meanwhile been increased to 150.
As of Wednesday, the facility had 79 positive patients. A plan to set up another CCC at ESI hospital in Banarpal block is under consideration. The new CCC will have 100 beds, it was learnt.
PNN