Bhubaneswar: Odisha government Thursday decided to close borders with Chhattisgarh from April 10 to April 30 amid rising cases of COVID-19 being reported in that state.
No public transport will be allowed to enter Odisha through the Chhattisgarh border and vice-versa, a source in the government said.
Odisha Chief Secretary, meanwhile, has also written a letter to the Railway Board chairman Suneet Sharma requesting to cancel train service from Chhattisgarh to the state from April 10. All passengers arriving in any station in Odisha via trains will also have to produce either a vaccination certificate or RT-PCR negative report.
The state transport department with help of police and under active guidance of collectors will set up Border Check Points (BCPs) at strategic locations across Odisha to manage entry of incoming persons and vehicles.
District collectors of high caseload districts namely Sundargarh, Jharsuguda, Sambalpur, Bargarh, Bolangir, Nuapada, Kalahandi, Nabarangpur, Koraput, Malkangiri, Ganjam, Gajapati, Rayagada, Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj and Balasore have been authorised to set up and operate Temporary Medical Centres (TMCs)/ Cluster Temporary Medical Centres (CL TMCs) to provide institutional quarantine facilities for people coming from other states.
Meanwhile Health Minister Naba Kishore Das informed Thursday that the state is yet to receive fresh lot of Covishield vaccines from the Centre.
“We have already written to the Union government. Till Thursday noon the state didn’t get new stock of vaccination. The supply of the vaccine lies with the Union government. When we need to give impetus to the vaccine drive, we are struggling due to the shortage of vaccines,” said Das.