BHUBANESWAR: With 3,014 more people testing positive in last 24 hours, the coronavirus tally
breached one lakh mark in Odisha in 167 days becoming the eleventh state in the country to record those many infections.
The state had reported the first case on March 15 and ranked second in delaying the spread.
While Maharashtra had logged one lakh cases in 95 days, Telangana had recorded one lakh cases in 173 days.
As the state witnessed a huge jump from 33,479 cases on August 1 to 1,00,934 cases on August 30, the novel coronavirus infection seems to be spreading rapidly both in urban and rural spaces.
If the statistics of the Health and Family Welfare department are any indication, different districts are at different stages of outbreak. From returnee migrants to locals and from urban pockets to rural areas, the virus spread fast despite biweekly shutdowns amid unlock 3.0 this month.
Barring three districts - Deogarh, Nuapada and Boudh, which have less than 100 active cases, the rest 27 districts are under red zone. With a total 27,166 active cases, Odisha climbed to seventh spot pushing behind Delhi, West Bengal, Bihar and Assam, which have registered more confirmed cases. It has 621 active cases per one million population against the national average of 563 cases.
While the number of cases went up three times in 20 districts, it doubled in six districts, including Khurda, Sundargarh, Jagatsinghpur and Keonjhar. Ganjam and Gajapati are two districts where cases are on the decline.
Districts where cases tripled in one month are Jajpur, Balasore, Bhadrak, Cuttack, Puri, Kendrapara, Balangir, Nayagarh, Kalahandi, Malkangiri, Dhenkanal, Mayurbhanj, Kandhamal, Sambalpur, Koraput, Jharsuguda, Sonepur, Nabarangpur, Bargarh and Rayagada.
The fatalities also continued to rise as 12 more patients, aged 30 to 70 years, succumbed to the disease taking the death toll to 535. Four among the deceased were from Ganjam.
Health authorities, however, attributed the rise in number of cases to accelerated testing. At an average of over 58,000 tests a day, the state has conducted 8,75,843 tests, including 1,12,816 through RT-PCR in last 15 days.
Additional Chief Secretary of Health department PK Mohapatra said the cases logged one lakh this month as predicted.
“But there is no reason to worry as the case positivity rate has come down below five and growth rate is below national average. At a fatality rate of 0.5 pc, lower than the national average, Odisha has done better than many states. Still, our focus is on limiting the death,” he said.
Mohapatra said it was a commendable achievement for Odisha as 104 patients have beenmcured and discharged after treatment through plasma therapy. “Nearly 270 patients more are undergoing the therapy and showing improvement,” he added.