West Bengal returnees current challenge in Odisha’s Covid-19 fight: Naveen Patnaik
BHUBANESWAR: Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik said on Wednesday said that the current big challenge for Odisha in its Covid-19 fight is taking care of people returning from West Bengal.
Stating that Odisha had successfully faced earlier two challenges of tackling foreign returnees and those who returned from Nizamuddin, Naveen said, “Now our third challenge is care of brothers and sisters returning from West Bengal. Among the current Corona (122) positive people in state, 50 have returned from Bengal,” Naveens said.
The CM’s video message to the people was released on a day four more people including three with WB travel history tested positive for the virus, raising the total positive in Odisha to 122.
Bhubaneswar reported one positive case, a 77-year-old man and family member of another Covid-19 patient in Madhusudan Nagar locality. One positive each was reported from Deogarh (34-year-old man), Keonjhar (60-year-old man) and Jharsuguda (18-year-old girl) districts. These are the first cases reported from these three districts. This increased the number of affected districts to 14 of the 30 districts. Government authorities said these three have recent West Bengal travel history.
The state government has tracked more than 2,900 people who have returned from West Bengal after March 25 by tracking their BSNL phone numbers alone and asked the district administrations to quarantine them. The actual number of people who returned from the neighbouring state are much more. They are also being tracked with feedback from panchayat representatives, a government officer said.
Stating that the situation is under control with people’s cooperation, Naveen said the next few days are important for control of the virus when people from some of the most infected states such as Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Rajasthan and neighbouring West Bengal will return. “The number of positive cases will increase when people will return. But if you cooperate, the situation will remain under control. Let’s ensure those who return are registered. Let’s help government to keep them in quarantine,” Naveen said.
“Situation in our state is better than many other states. If we cooperate the government and obey the government guidelines, Odisha will create history in containing corona,” Naveen said.
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