Odisha fights back, has more recoveries than new infections

BHUBANESWAR: In what could be a glimmer of hope for a state and its people fighting hard to contain Covid-19 infections, the number of patients to have recovered from the virus have surpassed active cases in the state, a first since Odisha recorded its first positive case on March 15.
On Wednesday, while 76 more tested positive for novel coronavirus, 79 patients recovered and were discharged from hospitals, the health department update on its Covid dashboard revealed.With this, the total number of active positive cases in the state stand at 774 while the number of recoveries climbed to 812. The total number of infected in the state is now 1593.
According to government data, the state's recovery rate has crossed 50% and improved to 50.97% compared to the national average of 42.41%. Similarly, the death rate in Odisha at 0.43% is far lower than the national average of 2.83%. Odisha last reported a Covid-19 death on May 21. The state has recorded a total of seven deaths, all with co-morbidities. A government statement said 1092 people are in hospital isolation.
Additional chief secretary (health) Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra said more people getting cured than active positive cases is an encouraging development. "We hope the situation will get better in the days to come," Mohapatra said.
Experts, though, sounded cautious. "More people getting cured than those currently infected is certainly a comforting development. However, we still don't know whether we have reached the peak," said Binod Patro, associate professor of community medicine at AIIMS, Bhubaneswar.
The number of active positive cases in the worst-affected Ganjam district has gone down to 82 as 283 among the 368 who had tested positive have recovered. Jajpur now has the highest number of active cases at 116. Among its 242 cases, 126 have recovered so far.
Among those who have recovered and discharged on Wednesday include 28 from Bhadrak besides 17 from Balasore, Ganjam (11), Puri (7), Jajpur (5), Cuttack (4), Keonjhar (3) and two each from Khurda and Balangir.
The new positive cases include 16 from Balangir, 13 each from Khurda and Nuapada, Cuttack (11), Ganjam (10), Jagatsinghpur (6), two each from Balasore, Nayagarh and Sundargarh and one from Mayurbhanj. Twenty-nine of the state's 30 districts have reported viral infections so far.