Odisha makes week-long home isolation mandatory for people coming from five 'high-risk' states

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government on Saturday said that a week-long home isolation will be mandatory for people coming to the state by plane or train from five high-risk states, modifying its previous order of imposing the precautionary measures to those arriving from 12 states. The five high-risk states are Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, Additional Chief Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, PK Mohapatra said. In a partial modification to the instructions issued on Friday to district authorities and others, Mohapatra clarified that at present the measure may be limited to passengers coming from five high-risk states instead of 12 states named earlier. In its order on Friday, the state government had made seven-day home isolation mandatory also for the people coming from Tamil Nadu, Telangana, West Bengal, Delhi, Chandigarh, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh to Odisha. Mohapatra said that the government may later include other states in the category of high-risk states if the situation warrants it. He said that the seven-day mandatory home isolation for people coming from the five high-risk states can be dispensed with for asymptomatic passengers who have an RT-PCR negative report, if the test was done not more than 72 hours before boarding, or a COVID vaccination final certificate. Meanwhile, Odisha reported 86 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday from 21 districts. Sundergarh district recorded the highest of 10 new cases followed by Khurda and Sambalpur (9 each). The state during the day also registered recovery of 56 patients taking the total number of cured people to 3,34,519. The state’s coronavirus death toll remained at 1,915 as no fresh fatality has been reported since Thursday, he said, adding that 53 more COVID-19 positive patients have also died in the state due to comorbidities. The state currently has 673 active cases. Odisha has tested over 83 lakh sample tests for COVID-19 cases so far, including 22,763 on Friday. Meanwhile, at least 20 students of Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology (VSSUT), a state-run institute at Burla in Sambalpur district, were detected with coronavirus in the last two days, an official said on Saturday. “While some students went home after they tested positive for COVID-19, 15 students who are asymptomatic are under isolation and they have been accommodated in a hostel that was lying vacant,” the official said. One student was admitted to a hospital. Offline practical and theory classes of the final year students of the VSSUT resumed on 20 January. The official said that the students of the varsity might have contracted the virus from people they came in contact with when they went outside the campus. Currently, around 1,500 students are staying in four hostels. In-charge Vice-Chancellor of the VSSUT, BB Pati said, Classes will be conducted through online mode onward. However, the pending examination of the final year students will be held through offline mode strictly adhering to all the Covid-19 guidelines.