Four doctors, eight nurses among 138 fresh cases in Odisha

BHUBANESWAR/BERHAMPUR: Four junior doctors and eight nurses of MKCG Medical College and Hospital, Berhampur were among the 138 persons who tested positive for Covid-19 in the state, according to the health department update on Monday. The fresh cases have taken the total number of infected persons in the state to 2,994.
The doctors include three postgraduate students of anaesthesia and an intern.
“The 12 persons have been moved to an isolation ward in the hospital,” Santosh Kumar Mishra, superintendent of the medical college, said. He added that the condition of all of them is good and that they are all asymptomatic. “The Covid-19 test of the medicos and the nurses was conducted as they had come in contact with a Covid-19 positive person,” the superintendent said. Infections among health professionals has emerged as a new cause of worry as two doctors from Rourkela and one each from Cuttack and Bhubaneswar had tested positive for the virus earlier.
With 33 more cases detected in the worst-affected Ganjam, the total infection count of the district is now 631. Nine patients have recovered, taking the recovery count to 419. The district now has 208 active patients.
The other positive cases were reported from 17 other districts including Cuttack (15), Khurda (13), Sundargarh (12), Bhadrak (11), 10 each from Keonjhar and Kandhamal, among others. Among the 138 new positive cases, 125 are among those in quarantine and 13 are local contacts.
The health department said 99 more Covid patients recovered increasing the number of cured patients to 1,993. With this, the state’s recovery rate now stands at 66.56%.
The newly cured patients are from Jajpur (16), Khurda (13), Kendrapara (11), Ganjam (9), Deogarh (8), seven each from Cuttack and Jagatsinghpur, six each from Balasore, Bargarh and Balangir, Keonjhar (4), Nayagarh (3) besides one each from Koraput, Sambalpur and Sundargarh.