State sees 91 new cases, infection spreads to Sambalpur

Bhubaneswar: The state recorded 91 fresh cases of the novel coronavirus on Sunday, pushing its total number of cases to 828. It also recorded its fourth death, taking the number of people who have succumbed to Covid-19 to four.
Twenty-four patients were discharged on Sunday, which pushed up the number of recovered cases to 220.
The 91 new positive cases include one sarpanch, three locals and 87 people who were staying in different quarantine centres after returning from Gujarat, West Bengal, Telangana, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, the health and family welfare department said.
News about the sarpanch's infection has led to some concern in the government as sarpanches are in charge of the quarantine centres across the state. The locals who got infected hail from Puri, Khurda and Balasore districts, and include the inmate of a jail who was arrested for robbery on Friday. "We are tracking the travel history and contacts of all positive patients," said a health department official.
With 15 new cases, Ganjam district has 292 patients, the highest in the state. All of these were detected in 16 days. Among other districts, Bhadrak added 28 new cases, Balasore 17, Cuttack 12, Puri 7, Keonjhar 4, Khurda 3, Balangir 2 and Kendrapada, Sundargarh and Sambalpur one each. An 18-year-old who returned from Ahmedabad became Sambalpur's first case. The number of affected districts now is 21.
Meanwhile, the Indian Institute of Science Education & Research (IISER), Berhampur, has been accorded the necessary approval by AIIMS, Bhubaneswar, for conducting Covid-19 test. As many as 5,083 samples were tested in different centres including the Regional Medical Research Centre (RMRC), Bhubaneswar, AIIMS, Bhubaneswar, SCB, Cuttack, MKCG, Berhampur, VIMSAR, Burla, ILS, Bhubaneswar, and IGH, Rourkela, on Saturday. The total number of samples tested so far is 91,223.