All religious institutions in Bhubaneswar & Cuttack to remain closed for devotees from today

In Odisha, all religious institutions in capital Bhubaneswar and Cuttack will remain closed for devotees from today. While issuing orders to this effect, Municipal Corporations of both the cities have said that only essential rituals will be permitted with strict adherence to covid appropriate behaviour. 

Even as the viral trajectory in the state keeps accelerating upwards, the state government has been clamping new controls on crowd-pulling activities- the latest being the closure of religious shrines for the general public in the twin cities of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack.

 

In yet another covid control measure, the state government has suspended driving licence tests in all the



Road Transport Offices in the state from tomorrow.

 

In addition, while all the urban areas across the state are to undergo weekend shutdowns from this week onwards, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, in a high-level meeting last evening, has directed all the collectors to ramp of hospital beds with oxygen support system. He has also asked the collectors to stay prepared to handle the influx of migrants particularly in view of mounting cases elsewhere beyond the state.

Meanwhile the state's covid-19 active caseload has climbed further to about 28000 with all the 30 districts reporting a combined total of 4161 new cases during the last 24 hours.