Covid-19: Single day spike in Bhubaneswar touches 50 after 4 months, Nuapada district continues to be vulnerable

BHUBANESWAR: The number of positive cases touched 50 for the first time after more than four months in Capital city raising concern about rising Covid tally with state reporting 200 plus cases for third straight day.
The new cases in Bhubaneswar are one fourth of the state’s total. Last time the city reported more than 50 cases was on November 18 (57 cases).The new cases have been found from 22 different locations, indicating a spread-out infection and not limited to any cluster. With 10 new recoveries and total 31863 recoveries and 250 deaths, the city now has 179 active cases. In seven days, the city has accumulated 180 cases, average 25 cases daily.
For the first time since May, the Covid cases in capital city on a single day had dipped to 1 on January 29. For around two months, the city had been reporting cases in single digit.
Ajay Parida, director, Institute of Life Sciences (ILS) said the virus is spreading like the peak of it and people need to adhere to Covid appropriate behavior. “If 46 out of 50 cases are local contact, it is not a good sign with just four being reported from quarantine. This means people with infection in them are moving and mingling with others without adhering to safety norms,” he said.
The worrying factor elsewhere in the state is tribal dominated Nuapada district, which continues to be vulnerable with 23 cases being reported. It had been taking the top spot in terms of rising infection for four consecutive days until Friday. Nuapada's close proximity to Chhattisgarh capital Raipur and unrestricted movement of people and goods making the bordering villages vulnerable. Now, Chhattisgarh is witnessing huge surge in daily Covid tally.
“We have stepped up the surveillance by involving panchayat representatives. We are getting inputs from them about persons returning from Chhattisgarh so as to ensure that he or she stays in quarantine for seven days. We can’t at this time stop economic activities and stop day traffic of vehicles carrying goods unless government so orders,” said collector (Nuapada) Swadha Dev Singh.
Two clusters- Brahmanpada village in Sinapali block and Konabira village in Komna block of the district- have been reporting more cases. “Because of their (villagers) suspected exposure, we launched targeted testing as a result of which cases were detected. More testing will be done to isolate the infected ones to check further spread,” Singh added.
The state’s active cases rose to 209 with 3,36482 recoveries and 1920 deaths. The total count jumped to 3, 39, 904. The state so far has tested 89, 49, 599 people.