Odisha sees 1,643 new Covid-19 cases, 274 of them in Khurda

BHUBANESWAR: With 1,643 people testing positive for Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, the state’s Covid tally touched 44,193 on Saturday. Twelve casualties were reported, taking the Covid death toll to 259.
Khurda district registered 274 cases, the same as Ganjam. “The case load has not increased in Khurda. Rather, cases in Ganjam have started falling. Due to its high number of cases, we placed a lot of focus on Ganjam, from testing to treatment.The viral load has started falling there,” said Jayant Panda, technical adviser to the health and family welfare department.
Panda said the situation in Khurda was quite different although a strategy similar to the one in Ganjam was followed in the former. “Bhubaneswar being the capital sees a large floating population from across the state. Many of the people who go in and out of the city may be carriers of the virus. There are more slums in Khurda, as are markets. These are leading to rise in cases,” Panda said.
As many as 1,701 Covid-19 cases have so far been detected in Khurda, of which the majority were detected in Tangi, Banpur, Bolagada and Begunia blocks, said Khurda collector Sanat Kumar Mohanty.
Among the 12 deceased, two each were from Bhubaneswar, Ganjam, Keonjhar and Kandhamal and one each from Sundargarh, Balasore, Bargarh and Gajapati. All of the patients had different co-morbidities, including diabetes, hypertension, coronary artery disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, said the health and family welfare department.
Cases are also on a rise in other districts — 136 cases were reported from Rayagada, 118 from Sundargarh, 112 from Sambalpur, 98 from Cuttack, 92 from Puri, 73 from Balasore, 52 from Kandhamal, 50 from Koraput, 43 from Balangir and 40 from Nayagarh, among others. Official sources said the recovery rate in Ganjam had risen significantly. The district recorded a recovery rate of 78%, which is higher than the recovery rate in Bhubaneswar (63.16%) and India (68.32%).