Chhattisgarh's Gaurela-Pendra-Marwahi declared COVID-19 containment zone from April 14-21

In view of an increase in COVID-19 cases, Chhattisgarh's Gaurela-Pendra-Marwahi collector has declared the entire district as a containment zone from April 14 to April 21.

However, emergency services will be exempted from restrictions. Milk and newspaper services will be available from 6 am to 10 am and from 5 pm to 6.30 pm.

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel had earlier instructed the officials to make mandatory, RT-PCR (Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction) test negative report obtained within 72 hours for passengers coming from other states by rail or air route.

On Sunday, the Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan wrote a letter to the Chhattisgarh government which says containment zones are not strictly followed and RT-PCR tests are also decreasing in the state.

"The team from Raipur, Jashpur has reported lack of perimeter control in containment zones. There appears to be no restriction on movement of people inside containment zones too. Hence, Containment Zone including micro Containment Zones need to be strictly implemented. Contact tracing efforts need to be reinforced in Korba. Resistance (even attacks on healthcare workers) to containment activities and testing was reported by the team from Dhaneli Village, Raipur. This needs to be addressed on an urgent basis," Bhushan said in the letter.

Chhattisgarh on Sunday reported 10,521 fresh coronavirus positive cases, taking the tally to 4,43,297 while 122 fatalities pushed the toll to 4,899, a health official said.The number of active cases in the state stands at 90,277 after 142 people were discharged from hospitals while 5,565 others completed their home isolation stay.

( With inputs from ANI )