BHUBANESWAR: The worst fears of Odisha entering the explosive phase of Covid-19 that has the potential to overrun the healthcare system has begun to come true with the State registering a massive surge of 8,386 new cases on Wednesday.But what is more worrying is that the test positivity rate (TPR) has shot up to nearly 20 per cent that translates into one in every five persons tested. The fresh cases rose by over 38 pc in a day pushing the active cases over 50,000.
The situation is more catastrophic in western Odisha districts with Kalahandi the worst hit. Every one in two persons getting tested in the district is turning out to be Covid-19 positive. The district with a population of 16 lakh has been recording more than 50 pc positivity rate for the last two days. While the TPR in the district was 62.38 pc on Monday, it was 55.75 on Tuesday.What is worrying is that the district continues to test less despite the explosive outbreak and the share of RT-PCR test is negligible.
Of the 226 samples tested including 209 through rapid antigen kits, in the last 24 hours, 126 were found to be positive. Similarly, 277 had tested positive of the 444 samples the previous day. The share of RAT was 281. Not only Kalahandi, the TPR is above the State average of 19.7 pc in 13 districts. The positivity rate was 42.64 pc in Sundargarh, 39.4 pc in Sambalpur, 31.84 pc in Khurda, 30.5 pc in Jajpur, 26.7 pc in Nabarangpur, 26.3 pc in Bargarh, 25.9 pc in Angul, 25.7 in Jharsuguda, 24.2 pc in Nuapada, 23.2 pc in Balangir and 23.1 pc in Puri.
While a bulk of the cases on the day were from Khurda with 1,840 people testing positive, eight western Odisha districts bordering Chhattisgarh contributed 3,035 cases to the tally. Among the worst hit districts, Sundargarh reported 933 cases, followed by Cuttack (496), Jharsuguda (433), Nabarangpur (388), Balangir (358) and Sambalpur (307). With 1,044 cases, the TPR in Bhubaneswar at 21 pc was the highest ever recorded so far. A member of the technical committee formed to advise the State on Covid management said even if the government is not in favour of lockdown, a complete shutdown of districts and cities having high TPR is the only possible way to block the transmission at this juncture.
“If the TPR is above 50 pc with maximum antigen tests, the situation is really grim. The actual positivity rate will be much higher because there would be many asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic patients who are not getting themselves tested. We are not testing enough,” he observed. Director of Health Services, Dr Bijay Mohapatra, however, attributed the rise in infections in western region and cities like Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Rourkela to community transmission and called for stringent containment measures.
“The State has reported over 8,000 cases for the first time since the pandemic. We are closely monitoring the situation and ramping up health infrastructure in view of the rising cases. Districts have been asked to go for localised containment zones where more clusters are emerging. People need to cooperate, stay at home and shun all non-essential travel,” he added. Ten more patients, including three each from Puri and Rayagada districts, succumbed to the disease taking the cumulative death toll to 2,017. The number of active cases stood at 50,724.