Bhubaneswar: In a significant decision amid rising COVID-19 cases in Odisha capital, home quarantine option will not be provided to those returning from five hotspot districts to slum areas of the city, informed Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) Commissioner Prem Chandra Choudhary today.

People coming/returning to slum areas of Bhubaneswar from Ganjam, Cuttack, Balasore, Gajapati and Jajpur districts will undergo a mandatory institutional quarantine, he said, adding that home quarantine will not be allowed.

"It is observed that few returnees from other hotspot districts (districts having more number of positive cases) to Bhubaneswar have been found positive for COVID-19. Such returnees if asymptomatic can affect many others as social distancing is practically not possible in slum areas because of small houses and high population density," an official order of the BMC said.

Earlier, those having home quarantine facilities at their house (separate room and bathroom) were allowed to undergo home quarantine.

The city has so far registered 274 COVID-19 cases with 16 fresh cases being reported today. As many as three persons have died of the disease in Bhubaneswar till date.