Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday directed director general of police (DGP) to launch a 10-day drive to strictly enforce Covid protocols in the state and asked the collectors to involve the Panchayati Raj Institution (PRI) members and Mission Shakti groups to create awareness and enforcement of Covid guidelines.

Naveen issued the direction following a meeting with senior officials in the evening on how to contain the spread of Covid-19 in the state.

“This new wave of Covid virus seems to be more infectious and might create a devastating situation, if we don’t take it seriously. We will go strict in enforcement of covid norms at the institutional and individual level,” said Naveen.

He also asked the chief secretary and other senior officials to visit western Odisha with high incidences of Covid positive cases and make on the ground assessment. Odisha is worried as the virus spread mainly concentrated in the districts adjoining the Chhattisgarh border.

“There should be no complaints about non-responsiveness of ambulances or lack of beds in the hospital,” Naveen said.

In view of the surge in Covid cases Puri administration has decided to restrict the entry of visitors to the pilgrim town.

It has asked the Puri Hotel Owners’ Association to impose restrictions on people visiting the town from states such as Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Punjab and Maharashtra where the incidence of Covid-19 is high.

“We have been asked by the administration to allow visitors from these five states to check-in only after they produce RT-PCR negative reports. The reports must not be older than 72 hours. The tourists without updates RT-PCR negative reports will not be allowed to enter stay in the hotels,” said Puri Hotel Owners Association president, Ramakrushna Das Mohapatra

Meanwhile, Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation has sealed an engineering college and an apartment for violation of Covid guidelines.

As many as 588 new corona positive cases were reported from different parts of the state on Tuesday with Khurda district leading the table.