Bhubaneswar, April 5 (TIWN) The Odisha government on Sunday said it would not extend the 48-hour shutdown enforced in state capital Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Bhadrak town as no threat of community transmission of coronavirus was found in the areas.

Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy said the 48-hour shutdown will end at 8 on Sunday in the three places whereas the 21-day lockdown will continue across the state till April 14.  Dispelling apprehensions of community transmission in the state, he said the government will focus on hotspot containment strategy in next 7-10 days.  District administrations have been asked to enforce containment strategy at the hotspots where patients have no travel history and are asymptomatic, for the rest of the lockdown period, said the Chief Secretary. 

After the Surya Nagar and Bomikhal positive cases in Bhubaneswar, the state government had apprehended that these were instances of community transmission.  However, the government later found that the cases had links to other states. 

"The motive behind the shutdown was to investigate whether the outbreak of the virus in the city was due to community transmission. However, during the investigation, it was found that there is no community transmission in the city as the two cases have linkage to other states," said Tripathy.  He appealed to the people not to overcrowd markets after 48-hour shutdown ends at 8 pm.  If people do not maintain social distancing and again create chaos at markets and vegetable shops, the government will have no option but to take stern action, warned Tripathy.