Dikhyaa Mohanty 
To flatten the Covid-19 curve states like Delhi, Karnataka and others have or going for complete lockdown. The rising surge of cases has hugely impacted the entire country where everyone is coping up and managing to come out of this misery. But will Odisha Chief Minister do the same and to maintain the numbers will there be a lockdown once again in the state?
Till now the Odisha Government have asked the people to take all precautionary and imposed the night curfews and weekend curfews. And recently while announcing the free vaccine for 18 years old and above, CM Patnaik also informed that there will be no such lockdown to be imposed in the state as last year due to the lockdown the entire nation suffered the economic downfall.
Last year Odisha was the first state to impose the lockdown which although did not manage to withhold the number of cases. Initially, when the lockdown was imposed, it was like a holiday for some but later realises the adverse impact on the livelihood and the economy. This year Odisha CM clearly stated that he is not in favour of any kind of lockdown.
But with the daily increasing number of cases and the number of deaths has alarmed the situation both in the state and other parts of the country. The situation of Delhi was so bad that it has extended the lockdown to toll May 3 and even due to the massive surge of cases Karnataka which has a test positivity rate (TRP) of 20 per cent decided to impose a curfew for 14 days from 9 PM.
The Prime Minister has also announced that the nation will not impose any kind of complete lockdown, but some of the states have imposed the lockdown due to the seriousness of the situation. But with the soaring number would Odisha which has been reporting over 6000 new cases for the last five years and reported a TRP of 16.64 per cent on April 26 follow the same path of Delhi and Karnataka.
Around 15 of the total 30 districts in the state are in the red zone with over 1000 active cases. Khurda has the highest active cases of 8,383 followed by Sundargarh (5,888), Kalahandi (3,233), Cuttack (2,996), Nuapada (2,795), Jhasuguda (2,326), Bargarh (2,320), Sambalpur (2,113), Puri, (2,093), Balangir (1,762), Nabarangpur (1,792), Jajpur (1,272), Angul (1126), Mayurbhanj (1,093) and Ganjam (1,048).
As per some source, the Odisha Government will likely announce the lockdown after the by-election to the Pipili Assembly constituency which is slated for 16th May. But the sources also stated that the lockdown will be imposed in certain selective ways in some of the northern and western districts if in near future the situation continues to be more serious.
Director Medical Education and Training (DMET) CBK Mohanty informed that the Covid-19 situation in Odisha seems to have reached a plateau with daily COVID-19 caseload in Odisha hovering between 6000 and 7000 for the last five days. He also stated that the positive cases may decrease in the coming days but nothing can be specifically be stated as the infections in the western Odisha districts bordering Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, and West Bengal, are still on the rise.
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