By Bizodish Bureau, Bhubaneswar, March 23, 2020: The Odisha Government on Monday extended its lockdown of districts from five to 14 to enforce strict social distancing and isolation measure to check coronavirus spreading.

The news districts names for the lockdown are Puri, Nayagarh, Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur, Bhadrak, Balasore, Sambalpur, Jharsuguda and Dhenkanal. These nine districts will follow the same rules imposed under the lockdown from between 7 am- 9 pm from 24 March until 29 March.

The coastal districts of Khurda, Cuttack, Ganjam, Kendrapara, Angul and towns such as Puri, industrial towns of Rourkela, Sambalpur, Jharsuguda, Balasore, Jajpur Jajpur Road and Bhadrak had already been under lockdown from the last two days. No public transport, including of taxis and autos is allowed, trains and busses have already been stopped, and as of Monday all domestic flights have been too.

Nearly 3699 people, returning from abroad after March 3, had registered themselves on the state government portal as of March 23. The state government also has decided to mark stickers on homes of those advised quarantine. District magistrates and municipal commissioners have been asked to paste such stickers mentioning the duration of quarantine on the homes, allowing no one else from the community to visit the quarantined member or family.

Integrated Disease Surveillance program (IDSP) cell and local police station will keep a check. “Vigil by local authorities should be kept to ensure that there is no social boycott. Local administration while calling these households should enquire about the same,” the statement added.

Strict instructions have also been issued to the media barring them from interviewing or publishing names and addresses positive cases or those of their relatives.