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With the shortage of Covid-19 vaccines in state, the vaccination drive was halted in 11 districts on Tuesday. Odisha Health Director Bijay Panigrahi said that the vaccination drive has been halted in 11 districts of Jajpur, Bhadrak, Puri, Nayagarh, Subarnapur, Gajapati, Boudh, Jharsuguda, Sambalpur, Dhenkanal and Koraput due to shortage of vaccines.

Campaigning for the bypoll to Pipili Assembly Constituency on April 17 hit fever pitch on Tuesday with BJP heavyweights Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and party’s National Spokesperson Sambit Patra holding rallies for party candidate Ashrit Pattanayak. Dharmendra Pradhan kicked off a road show from Uttara square and addressed public gatherings at Dandamukundapur, Satasankha and Pattanaikia.

With India witnessing a massive surge in COVID-19 cases daily, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday (April 13) requested the Centre to consider cancelling CBSE Board exams for classes 10 and 12. Addressing a press conference Kejriwal said that the national capital has registered 13,500 cases in 24 hours. Citing that the second wave of the pandemic is very dangerous Kejriwal requested to the Centre to cancel CBSE examinations.

In a huge spike, Odisha's daily Covid-19 cases breached the 2000-mark with the State recording 2267 new positives in the last 24 hours.. Three persons, one from Bolangir, one from Jajpur, and one from Ganjam, have succumbed to coronavirus in the past 24 hours. BIG SPIKE recorded in Odisha! Daily Covid-19 cases breach 2000-mark in Odisha. 2267 n-CoV positive cases reported in Odisha in last 24 hours. 1314 cases in QUARANTINE, 953 LOCAL CONTACT cases. 1 death reported from Jajpur, 1 from Bolangir, 1 from Ganjam. Death toll in Odisha mounts to 1933. In last 24 hours, SUNDARGARH reports maximum 458 Covid-19 cases. 348 new cases in Khordha, 120 cases each in Bargarh & Sambalpur. 117 positive cases in Cuttack, 104 cases each in Nabarangpur & Nuapada. Bolangir reports 93 new cases, Ganjam & Puri report 70 cases each. ACTIVE Covid-19 cases in Odisha rise To 12244. Total corona positive cases so far in Odisha at 3,55,353. Total recoveries at 3,41,123.

With Covid-19 cases exploding in Odisha, protests by college students also intensified over demands to conduct the exams in online mode. In view of the worsening situation, the Biju Patnaik University Of Technology (BPUT) on Tuesday rescheduled the odd semester (regular/back) examinations for the academic session 2020-21. As per an official notification of the BPUT, the exams will commence from May 7 in online mode. BPUT said that the schedule will be notified in due course. BPUT has further asked all the colleges to upload the photographs, e-mail IDs and mobile numbers of all registered students on the web portal www.bputevaluation.com from April 15, 2021. The portal will remain open till 5PM of April 19, 2021. In another development, the Odisha Skill Development And Technical Education Department has decided to conduct the Semester and Mid-Semester examinations of all technical universities and autonomous engineering colleges in online mode until the situation improves. Since, the examination process for the 1st, 3rd and 5th semesters of Diploma students has already started in all centres and will be concluded by April 21, 2021, the State government has allowed them to conclude the same in offline mode. However, State Council for Technical Education & Vocational Training in Bhubaneswar will be conducting the further semester and mid-semester examinations in online mode until further orders.  

Odisha Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mahapatra informed on Wednesday that a second COVID hospital with 250 general beds and 50 ICU beds will be set up at the newly constructed medicine ward of Veer Surendra Sai Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (VIMSAR), Burla within 10 days.

Amid claims of vaccine shortage in Odisha, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Wednesday lashed out at Odisha Health Secretary Pradipta Mohapatra. The Union Minister has blamed the health secretary for giving flames to the debate over shortage of vaccine in Odisha. The minister requested Health Secretary not to create such crisis in the state. Dharmendra Pradhan said that there is no dearth of vaccine in the state and mentioned that 2-3 more vaccines are also on verge of rollout soon. Once they are approved, vaccines will be available in more quantity, the minister has said.

Union Minister for Education Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank today announced that the CBSE Class X board exams will be cancelled in view of the current COVID19 pandemic situation. Class XII board exams have been postponed.

This is a special crab which the Devgns love and ordered specifically, mentions Saroja Choudhury while prepping a giant blue crab. Business has become busier these days for Saroja Choudhury, thanks to her entrepreneurial venture Rosy’s Kitchen, which is putting Odia dishes on the plates of Bollywood bigwigs

Following the shocking escape of dreaded criminal Hyder, more and more questions are being raised over the role of police, jail and hospital authorities. Addressing a press conference, senior BJP leader, Prakash Mishra said that some top and influential person is involved in the matter or else such an escape plan cannot be executed.

India's new coronavirus infections reached a record of 184,372 in the last 24 hours, health ministry data showed on Wednesday, as most of the south Asian nation battles a second surge in cases.

The Nandankanan Zoo in Bhubaneswar welcomed 3 little guests on Wednesday. Royal Bengal Tigress Megha gave birth to 3 cubs at the famous zoological park in the capital city late on Tuesday night. The Zoo authorities said that the cubs were fathered by Royal Bengal Tiger Nandan. With this, the total tiger population in the zoo rose to 30. Among these, 7 are White Tigers, 4 are Melanistic Tigers and 13 are Royal Bengal Tigers. According to the zoo authorities, the mother tigress and her 3 cubs are healthy and are being monitored through CCTV for their safety. A few days back on the 28th of March, white tigress Bijaya had given birth to three cubs after mating with Bengal Tiger Saif.

  Former 'Bigg Boss' diva Hina Khan was spotted at the Mumbai airport recently. The actress soon caught the lens of the paparazzi at the airport upon arrival. Hina was sporting a casual black top & matching track pants with a pair of flashy sunglasses. But the shutterbugs seemed they couldn’t get enough clicks of her forcing Hina to run to the car while urging the crowd to let her go

  Bollywood actor Jackky Bhagnani was spotted at airport arrival in Mumbai recently. The actor was snapped wearing white shirt and a pair of blue denims to go with white sneakers.

As more and more questions are being raised over the security apparatus following gangster Hyder’s escape, it has come to notice that at least six cops guarding the dreaded criminal were staying at a hotel. The cops were staying at a hotel called Ahalya and soon after the news was reported by OTV, the concerned cops hurriedly checked out of the hotel on Tuesday night. As per reports, there were six cops who were deployed to guard gangster Hyder who was admitted to Cuttack hospital for treatment. The cops were staying at a hotel in Manglabag area in Cuttack. On March 23, Mohammad Mousim, a police personnel had reportedly booked the rooms in the hotel. However, after the gangster’s escape on Saturday (April 10), the cops continued staying at the hotel. But after the fact surfaced in media, the cops left the hotel room on Tuesday night at 11:40 PM