Bhubaneswar: Reiterating that 4.5 crore people of Odisha are his family, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Saturday took bold and effective steps to save his family from the deadline coronavirus.
Announcing his decision to lockdown 40 percent of Odisha including the State Capital for a week to keep COVID-19 at bay, Naveen said, “It is the duty of the community, specifically Sarpanches and elected representatives and other community leaders to keep a close watch and monitor this lockdown 4.5 crore people of Odisha are my family and I am concerned about the well- being of each one of you”.
Naveen appealed the people of the State to stay home as part of the effective preventive measure to contain the deadly Coronavirus.
He said, “I humbly request you to stay at home and come out only for basic services”,
“My only appeal is Stay at Home. If you go out – you risk bringing the virus to your family. Go out only for basic requirements- groceries, food and water, medicines, hospitals. The administration will take tough action on anyone violating this and risking their life, their family members and people of Odisha”, the CM said.
“In the last 60 days the world has changed. We thought the change is happening in faraway places like China, South Korea but it has reached India now. In the last 15 days, the most powerful countries of the World- U.S., U.K., many in Europe have been severely affected”, the Odisha CM said.
He further said that the case numbers are rising in India. We have a very small window to take pre- emptive action. There is no cure for this virus. The only cure is prevention. It is only if you go out of your home that you may bring the virus to your home and your neighbourhood.
Only through this strategy, China and some countries have reversed the trend. Infact, Wuhan which is the nerve centre has no more infections today. Their hospital are free They made people stay at home and come out only for essential services. Time has come for us to take the extraordinary step and sacrifice, to protect our State and our people, he added.
As per decision, five districts and eight major towns of the State will be lockdowned from March 22 to 29. These are the districts where more than 70 percent of the total 3200 foreign returnees belong to.
The districts include Khurdha, Cuttack, Ganjam, Kendrapada, Angul and the towns are Puri, Rourkela, Sambalpur, Jharsuguda, Balasore, Jajpur road and Jajpur town and Bhadrak.
Odisha has become the first State in the country to lockdown 40 percent of the State to fight the keep the killer Coronavirus at bay.