BHUBANESWAR: With a steady rise in movement of migrants from different states, Covid-19 spread to 26 districts in Odisha after two more districts reported positive cases, all imported. As many as 80 new cases were detected in the last 24 hours from 13 districts, most of which received migrants from Gujarat, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh recently. Among them 71 are from quarantine centres, two from home quarantine zone and seven local contacts.
With this, the total number of coronavirus cases rose to 1,269, including 1,113 men and 156 women. While 765 active cases have been admitted to Covid Hospitals in the respective districts, seven persons have succumbed to the disease so far. Nineteen people have tested positive in Ganjam, followed by 17 in Puri, 14 in Jajpur, five each in Sundargarh, Nayagarh and Malkangiri, four in Gajapati, three each in Balasore and Jharsuguda, two in Kandhamal and one each in Cuttack, Balangir and Nabarangpur.
Of the 19 cases in Ganjam, 15 had returned from Surat and one from Maharashtra. The rest three are local cases. Eight of the affected persons in Jajpur had returned from Bengal, five from AP and one from Gujarat. Similarly, 11 of the 17 cases in Puri are Gujarat returnees and four are WB returnees while the rest one each came back from AP and Tamil Nadu.
Official sources said the spurt in Covid positive cases in Puri district will have little impact on the forthcoming Rath Yatra as most of the cases are from quarantine centres and there is no local transmission. Jharsuguda reported one more minor positive case as a one-year-old girl has been diagnosed with the disease a day after her five-year-old brother tested positive. The siblings along with their parents had returned from Agra on May 16 and were in home quarantine.
Gajapati and Nabarangpur are the new additions in the Covid map of the State. Of the 30 districts, only four - Bargarh, Rayagada, Nuapada and Sonepur are left with no person afflicted with the virus as yet.
While highest 341 cases have been detected in Ganjam so far, Jajpur is the second worst-affected district with 239 cases. Balasore, Bhadrak, Khurda, Puri and Cuttack have registered 128, 98, 74, 65 and 57 cases respectively. On Saturday, 62 more patients, including 41 from Ganjam, 15 from Balasore, two from Rourkela and one each from Bhadrak, Mayurbhanj, Jajpur and Maharashtra have recovered. So far, 496 patients in the State have recovered, excluding Maharashtra natives.