This story is from November 14, 2020

IHME lowers death projection but state alert to Covid threat

Even as the state government is not showing any laxity in the enforcement of Covid norms anticipating a possible second wave of infection after December 15, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) — a population health research centre at the University of Washington — has significantly lowered its earlier projection of deaths in the state amid the consistent decline in the fresh infection count.​
IHME lowers death projection but state alert to Covid threat
Covid testing in Cuttack
BHUBANESWAR: Even as the state government is not showing any laxity in the enforcement of Covid norms anticipating a possible second wave of infection after December 15, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) — a population health research centre at the University of Washington — has significantly lowered its earlier projection of deaths in the state amid the consistent decline in the fresh infection count.

The IHME, which had in the first week of September projected that Odisha would witness more than 11,000 deaths owing to Covid-19 by December 31, has said the total deaths by the year-end would be between 2,038 and 2209. According to the IHME’s revised projection, the total Covid-19 deaths in Odisha would be between 2,351 and 3,110 by January 31 and between 2,687 and 4,592 by February 28.
Meanwhile, with 12 more succumbing to the infection in the state, the virus death toll rose to 1,495 on Friday. Altogether 1,018 more persons tested positive for Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, raising the virus caseload in the state to 3,07,004.
Jayant Panda, the government’s technical adviser on the pandemic, said, “While the projections may be of academic interest, the fact is that the state is witnessing a sharp decline in new infection count and positive rates. However, there is no scope for being complacent as any lapse may result in the infections coming back. We must continue to stick to the Covid-appropriate behaviours, wear masks in public places and maintain proper social distance.”
The new deaths include the highest three from Sundargarh followed by two each in Dhenkanal and Khurda and one each in Angul, Kandhamal, Koraput, Puri and Sambalpur.
The fresh positive cases were from among the 48,246 samples tested with a positivity rate of 2.11%. With 1,504 more recoveries, the total number of cured patients rose to 2,95,245. The state now has 10,211 active positive cases. Amid the falling new infections and rising recoveries, the active positive cases have fallen below 500 each in 24 of the 30 districts. Khurda (1044) is the only district having more than 1,000 active cases now. The five districts of Cuttack (942) Sundargarh (812), Mayurbhanj (697), Angul (598) and Jagatsinghpur (518) have between 500 and 1000 active cases.
The once worst-hit Ganjam is now left with only 93 active positive cases, the third lowest among the districts. Deogarh has the lowest (34) cases, while Gajapati has the second lowest (36) active cases. The health department officials have appealed to people to refrain from bursting crackers, which have been banned by the state government, as the smoke emanating from crackers can be dangerous for Covid-affected persons.
End of Article
FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA