A migrant labourer spent 2 days in a jungle after he was allegedly denied admission to the quarantine centre and the villagers also restricted him from entering his own village in Ganjam district of Odisha. The man, identified as Barik nayak claimed that when he reached his village after traveling all the way from Chennai, the sarpanch and local administrator didn’t permit him to enter the village and neither helped him to get an admission to a quarantine centre. He was then compelled to spend 2 days in the jungle. Later the police came and took him to the nearest quarantine centre in Sanakodanda, News18 reported.According to the sources, Barik travelled from Chennai to Balasore in Odisha by train and was brought to bhanjanagar (49 km away from his village Ganjam) by bus. Bur when he reached his village, the locals restricted him from entering.A local from the village said: ‘He came from Chennai. He went to the police and block office but no one helped. Then, he went to the jungle.’In a similar incident, a 30-year-old man of Dolaba village in Odisha’s Berhampur was forced to remain in quarantine inside his car. The man, identified as Madhaba Patra was subjected to the social stigma surrounding COVID-19.On Saturday, Odisha recorded the highest single day spike with 173 new COVID-19 cases taking its tally from 2,608 to 2,781. While the number of active cases stood at 1,055.Ganjam district has reported the highest number of 597 cases till Saturday followed by jajpur at 253 and khordha at 226.The state on Saturday announced a weekend shutdown in 11 districts starting from June 6 to make people stay at home and reduce their chances of exposure to COVID-19. The state government’s spokesperson Subroto Bagchi said that ‘more than 5 lakh migrants have returned to Odisha during the past 2 weeks and the next two weeks will tell how many of them have been affected by the novel coronavirus disease’.Out of the total 2,781 COVID-19 positive cases in Odisha, 10 have died so far and 1,716 patients have recovered till Saturday. The state has set-up more than 16,799 temporary medical centres in 6,798 gram-panchayats for quarantine of those coming from the other states. Also Read: Odisha: Stigma Around COVID-19 Forces 30-Yr-Old Man To Quarantine In Car
