BHUBANESWAR: IN a massive surge, Odisha’s daily case-load crossed 1000 mark for the first time during the last 24 hours witnessing a jump of over 66 per cent (pc) over the previous day’s count, following the rise in number of tests.
With 1,078 new cases including 357 local contacts spread across 28 districts, the Covid tally neared 20,000 in the State. Except Nuapada and Deogarh, all other districts registered coronavirus infections with Ganjam, Khurda and Rayagada contributing majorly to the tally.
The positivity rate also jumped from 8.04 pc to 11.62 pc surpassing the national rate of 11 pc during the period. The daily growth rate of 5.74 pc was also above the national growth rate of 3.26 pc.
Ganjam recorded the maximum 371 cases, followed by Khurda (121), Rayagada (96), Malkangiri (66), Cuttack (57), Jagatsinghpur (35), Jharsuguda (34) and Sundargarh (29).
While four districts have more than 1000 cases each and accounted for 55.5 pc of the total case-load, the number of confirmed cases soared to 6362 in Ganjam. The second worst affected district Khurda has 2219 cases while, Cuttack and Jajpur have 1384 and 1043 infections respectively.
Apart from the high virus burden districts, rapid spread of infection in tribal districts like Malkangiri, Koraput, Rayagada, Nabarangpur and Kandhamal has become a cause of concern despite several containment measures. The daily rise witnessed a quantum jump in worst hit Ganjam as it was more than two times of the State average of June. Health experts said Odisha needs to test more samples keeping in pace with other states.
On the other hand, six more Covid-19 patients succumbed in the State taking the death toll to 139, including 108 in Covid.Five patients, including one 40-year-old woman died in coronavirus infection. While three were from Ganjam and one each from Gajapati and Kandhamal, another patient from Ganjam died in chronic liver disease. After 440 more recovered, total recoveries rose to 13,750.