The Tech Mahindra Bhubaneswar campus has been sealed by Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) after multiple COVID-19 cases were detected. The surroundings have been secured for the next 72 hours as the sanitization process begins.
Pramod Kumar Prusty, BMC North zonal deputy commissioner, stated that the firm was shut after seven cases were detected in the last one week. “The first case from the campus was reported on June 29, and the individual had a travel history outside Odisha,” he said. Sixty-five employees of the IT firm have been home quarantined, and if any of the suspects show any COVID symptoms, they will undergo COVID-19 tests, the zonal deputy commissioner stated.
Prusty further explained that contact tracing is underway so that the authorities can isolate others who have come in contact with these seven persons. Thirty-seven cases have been recorded in Khurda in the last 24 hours, out of which 26 are from Bhubaneswar, sources said.
In the meantime, the COVID-19 tally in Odisha crossed the 10,000 mark as the state recorded its highest single-day spike of 572 cases and six deaths. In the last 24 hours, COVID-19 cases have been reported from 21 districts and Ganjam still remains the top COVID-19 hotspot with 273 fresh cases.
Health and Family Welfare department authorities declared that three men in the age group of 48 to 70 years from Ganjam and a 48-year-old man from Cuttack have succumbed to death while undergoing treatment at different hospitals. The other two persons, an 80-year-old man from Cuttack and a 45-year-old man from Mayurbhanj, died due to cancer although they were infected with the coronavirus.
So far, the state has reported 10,097 COVID-19 cases and 42 deaths. However, the health officials of the state alleged that at least 12 of them have died due to other diseases.