English
Bhubaneswar: In view of Cyclone Yaas intensifying into a severe cyclonic storm as it passes the eastern coast, the Odisha government on Monday decided to suspend all activities related to COVID-19 testing, vaccination and door-to-door survey work in three cyclone-prone districts till May 27. These include – Balasore, Bhadrak and Mayurbhanj, all three fall under the red zone with more than 1,000 active coronavirus cases.
“The ongoing activities of COVID-19 testing, vaccination and door-to-door COVID-19 survey shall remain suspended in Balasore, Bhadrak and Mayurbhanj districts between May 25 and 27,” read the notification issued by Odisha Health and Family Welfare Department.
The health department, however, deployed additional doctors in Balasore and Bhadrak districts to handle health problems likely to be caused by Cyclone Yaas. The state government has also cancelled the holidays and leaves of all government employees with immediate effect in view of the cyclone.
“In order to expedite pre-cyclonic arrangements and ensure post cyclonic rescue/relief operations in the vulnerable districts and facilitate the provision of human resource, material and logistics support to the affected districts, it is imperative that all the state government offices and officials remain in a state of readiness,” the notification said.
Officials are required to stay in respective headquarters till May 31 and in no case, shall be permitted to leave headquarters without permission of the authority. Leaves availed by all the government employees are also cancelled and those on leave are required to join duty forthwith, the notification added.
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