Odisha: At 57.1%, Sambalpur positivity rate among country’s highest

BHUBANESWAR: With a weekly positivity rate of 57.1%, Sambalpur has figured among the top 10 districts in the country with the highest percentage of people testing positive for Covid-19.
Altogether 15 districts in the country have recorded a positivity rate of more than 50% in the week starting May 1. Nineteen districts in the state have a positivity rate of more than 20% with six in western Odisha shooting past the 30%-mark.
On Friday, Sambalpur tested 1,020 samples, of which 544 returned positive. This pushed the positivity rate to 53.33%.
Sambalpur, the biggest western Odisha district, is an education and healthcare hub with several state and national-level colleges and universities located there. It is also situated close to Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.
The district on Saturday reported 533 new infections, taking the total infection count to 18,472 and active cases to 4,505. The district has recorded 83 Covid deaths so far.
While Sambalpur’s single-day spike is not as alarming as that of Nuapada, Kalahandi and Sundargarh, its positivity rate is much more than the rest. “There could be a possibility of the samples being tested coming from clusters that have a a large number of infected persons. However, considering the high positivity rate, testing should be ramped up,” Ajay Parida, director, Institute of Life Sciences (ILS), said.
The infection summary of the district showed that it reported its highest single-day spike of 544 cases on Friday. It started reporting cases in triple digits from April 12.
Close to one-fourth of the caseload of the district has been reported from the urban centre — Sambalpur city, a culturally significant city in western Odisha. Around 4,500 cases have so far been reported from the Sambalpur city jurisdiction.
The block-wise heat map shows, except Jujomara and Bamara blocks, all others have witnessed more than 100 cases with the highest number of (828) cases coming from Kuchinda block.
Bargarh district, which was carved out of Sambalpur, lies next to Chhattisgarh and has been recording 400 cases every day, on an average. People shuttle between Bargarh and Sambalpur. This could be the reason behind both districts witnessing a huge spurt in cases. However, Bargarh’s positivity rate is 34%.
“Lockdown is the last resort to bring down the positivity rate. The state is already in a lockdown. We hope the positivity rate will decline,” Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra, additional chief secretary (health), said.