Odisha: Cuttack, Khurda overtake Ganjam in active positive cases

BHUBANESWAR: Ganjam seems to have turned a corner as far as the coronavirus crisis is concerned. The district — which has the highest Covid-19 case count in the state — has only 71 active cases.
Even as the migration-prone district is doing relatively better now, it is Cuttack and Khurda (including Bhubaneswar) that have turned out to be a headache for the state government. These two districts are reporting several cases daily and currently have more active positive cases than Ganjam.Cuttack has 176 active cases and Khurda has 97 — the highest and the second-highest active cases in the state at present.
Of the 690 infected people in Ganjam, 613 have recovered. In Cuttack, 165 people out of 342 patients have recovered. In Khurda, 259 out of 362 patients have recovered. So far, four persons have died in Khurda district (three of them in Bhubaneswar).
In fact, the number of active cases in Cuttack district can be considered to be even higher than 176. The health department’s website records 158 Covid-19 cases under the ‘others’ category, without attributing them to any district. These patients are personnel from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF), who had gone to West Bengal in the wake of Cyclone Amphan. The NDRF station falls within Cuttack district, and the infected personnel of both the NDRF and the ODRAF are admitted in a Covid hospital in Cuttack. If they are added to the current active cases of 176, Cuttack district’s active cases rise to 334.
Khurda district reported over 50 per cent of its positive cases between June 1 and June 15. Cuttack took slightly longer — from May 31 and June 15 to do so. It reported its highest of 92 cases on a single day on June 12.
Bhubaneswar reported 16 cases on Sunday and five on Monday. Of these 21 cases, four are locals (who were not under quarantine) while 17 are returnees from outside the state.
Of the 17 returnees, two persons of Jayadev Vihar had returned from the US recently and were under home isolation. Another person who had returned from Oman was also at home in Kalinga Vihar. The other positive persons had returned from Kolkata, Pune, Delhi, Chennai and Saudi Arabia. So far, the city has reported 127 positive cases, of which 52 are active.
Tribal district Kandhamal, which reported its first case only on May 17, recorded a high 47 cases on Sunday. It has so far reported 137 cases, of which 30 people have recovered.
Ganjam has the highest infection count, followed by Khurda and Cuttack districts. Jajpur and Balasore, which used to occupy the second and third spots on the case list, are now fourth and fifth. Nabarangpur has no active cases, while Sonepur has only two active cases.