Bhubaneswar: The capital city is fast turning into one of the COVID-19 hotspots in the state thanks to slum areas where the police are allegedly not enforcing proper COVID-19 restrictions.
While the COVID-19 tally in the city is 292, hospital employees and slum area people account for 40 per cent of the total number.
The situation in slum areas is said to have come to such a pass that the health workers engaged in the fight against coronavirus have reportedly stopped visiting the slums for fear of contracting the virus. As a result, health checkup and thermal screening in slums have come to a halt.
Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) is claiming that active surveillance in slums is underway. Samiti members, ASHAs, Anganwadi workers and social activists have been engaged to visit each and every home in the slums and conduct health checkups and thermal screenings.
But the slum dwellers have alleged that these health workers are not visiting their slums regularly. When asked about the reason, they would blame coronavirus fears for their irregularities. The BMC officials are also not overseeing the work. Policemen who are found strictly enforcing coronavirus lockdown and shutdown restrictions in town areas are hardly seen doing so in slum areas.
If the attitude of the civic body authorities and the police administration remain the same for few more days then it would be a matter of time before the COVID-19 situation in Bhubaneswar goes out of control.
Notably, six more people tested positive for COVID-19 in the city Sunday, taking the tally to 292. Of them, 122 are active cases, 165 have recovered from the disease and four patients have succumbed to the disease.
PNN