Bhubaneswar: With COVID-19 cases across the state escalating, the airport authorities as well as the East Coast Railway (ECoR) have intensified their surveillance to counter the increase of cases in the state.
The Bhubaneswar railway station has now started thermal screening of the passengers and also placed a helpdesk to cater to the screening needs of the travelers. In case of detection of symptomatic persons, the department is also felicitating antigen test of individuals.
The department officials and security personnel in the city railway station are now working towards compliance of social distancing and mask wearing.
An official from ECoR said that it has now been made mandatory for all the passengers coming from outside Odisha to carry a COVID-19 negative report done through RT-PCR method to prevent the rise of the case in the state from Saturday. This was done after the state government requested the railways to undertake measures to prevent spread of the disease.
At the same time, the airport authorities have also escalated their drive to boost the screening facilities.
With dedicated screening units, the airport officials are conducting thermal screening of passengers. The passengers are also checked for mandatorily wearing masks during their stay in the airport while testing facility is also given to the passengers who are symptomatic.
Mandatory arrangements and compliance of masks and face shields are also done by the airline operators during the time to prevent any spread of the disease from their campuses.
The Odisha police have also tightened their belts to enforce COVID-19 safety norms. In the last one day, the department was able to collect a total of Rs 27.18 lakh from erring citizens seen flouting the norms.
The police was also able to arrest 15 persons and seize 749 vehicles found flouting the norms in the last one day.