BHUBANESWAR: In yet another high, Odisha reported 6164 new Covid-19 cases, a jump by nearly 27 percent (pc) from the previous day's count, pushing the active cases to cross 35,000.
Seven persons succumbed to the disease during the period. Two deaths each were reported from Ganjam and Rayagada and one each from Kalahandi, Kandhamal and Khurda.
Health department sources said, of the fresh cases spread across 30 districts, 3575 were detected among people in quarantine and 2589 were local infections. The state conducted 44,983 tests and the test positivity rate stood at 13.7 pc.
Khurda became the first district in the state to report Covid cases in four digits since the beginning of the pandemic. While the highest 1132 infections were diagnosed in the district, Nuapada, Kalahandi, Sundargarh, Cuttack and Jharsuguda were among the worst hit with 459, 452, 427, 360 and 355 cases respectively.
A significant number of cases reported from other districts included 286 in Puri, 236 in Bargarh, 229 in Sambalpur, 226 in Balangir, 207 in Nabarangpur, 205 in Keonjhar, 154 in Jajpur, 136 each in Mayurbhanj and Angul, 135 in Ganjam and 105 in Rayagada.
While 18 districts accounted for 85 pc of the cases, ten western Odisha districts bordering Chhattisgarh put together 2652 cases contributing 43 pc of the fresh caseload. With more than 1000 cases each, 11 districts, including eight border districts, have been categorised as Covid hotspots.
Sundargarh, Nuapada, Kalahandi and Khurda are the worst hit with most of the blocks registering more than 100 cases each. Khurda has the highest 5946 active cases, followed by 5055 in Sundargarh, 2116 in Nuapada, 1978 in Cuttack, 1765 in Bargarh, 1763 in Kalahandi, 1707 in Sambalpur and 1591 in Jharsuguda.
With this, the total number of confirmed cases soared to 3,88,479 of which 3,51,386 have recovered and 1965 succumbed so far. The active cases stand at 35,075.