Odisha government today extended the state-wide lock down till the 17th of June 2021.
Announcing this in capital Bhubaneswar this evening, Suresh Chandra Mohapatra, chief secretary of the state, said the lockdown has been extended by another 16 days to arrest the growth of covid-19.
The ongoing phase of the statewide lockdown was to end on the 1st of June.
He said, alongwith the lockdown, weekend shutdown across the state will continue as before.
AIR correspondent reports, this is the third consecutive lockdown since it was first imposed across the state on the fifth of May in view of the second wave of covid-19.
While all restrictions and exemptions will be in force as before, at least three districts, namely, Nuapada, Sundergarh and Gajapati, have been allowed some relaxation in view of the significant reduction in cases there.
While shops dealing with food, grocery and vegetables will be open from 7 to 11 in the morning in the rest of the state, these three districts will enjoy two more hours for shopping essentials on weekdays.
Meanwhile, after lying low for a couple of days due to the cyclone-occasioned disruption in testing, the daily new cases have shot up again to about 9500 today.
However, the positivity rate that was about 25% when the state went into lockdown early this month, has come down drastically to about 14% as of now.
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