By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, April 5, 2020: People cutting across the country have shown solidarity in the fight against coronavirus on Sunday by lighting lamps and candles and turning off their lights.

The prime minister had on Friday urged the people to switch off the lights of their homes and light up lamps, candles or mobile phone torches for nine minutes at 9 pm on April 5 to display the country’s “collective resolve” to defeat coronavirus.

People in Odisha also joined the rest of the country by lighting candles and lamps in their resolve to defeat the deadly virus.

The state, which is yet to record any death so far due COVID-19, saw a spike in the positive patients to 18 in the state capital Bhubaneswar – highest in a day, raising the number of cases of the pandemic in Odisha to 39 on Sunday, latest health and family welare tweet said.

Meanwhile, complete shutdown was observed for 48 hours in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Bhadrak which was in effect till Sunday 8 PM.

The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Sunday launched a massive disinfection drive by spraying sodium hypochlorite solution with the help of fire tenders at the containment areas like Surya Nagar and Bomikhal, 10 major daily markets across the city. Other daily markets will be sanitised by spraying of disinfectants later, in a phase-wise manner, officials said.