BHUBANESWAR: Odisha reported the highest single day spike in Covid-19 fatalities as 32 people succumbed to the disease taking the cumulative death toll to 2,516. With 11,059 more people testing positive for the virus, the tally crossed the seven lakh mark.The deceased included six from Khurda district (four from Bhubaneswar alone), four each from Ganjam and Jharsuguda and three each from Angul, Kalahandi and Sundargarh, two each from Puri and Gajapati and one each from Balangir, Cuttack, Keonjhar, Nayagarh and Sambalpur.
Of the fresh cases, 6,193 were in quarantine and the rest 4,866 infections were local contacts. Six districts reported more than 500 cases each with Cuttack topping the chart at 1,133 cases. Along with Angul it is emerging as the latest concern for the State government. New clusters in rural Cuttack and Angul have been fueling the infection. Among other hotspots, Khurda registered 1,010 cases, followed by Angul (859), Sundargarh (729), Mayurbhanj (662), Jajpur (564), Puri (430), Kalahandi (407), Balasore (400), Sambalpur (379) and Bhadrak (377).
As many as 66,512 tests, including 18,854 through RT-PCR were conducted during the period taking the total number of tests to 1.13 crore. The test positivity rate (TPR), however, came down to 16.6 per cent (pc) from 19.1 pc a day before. The TPR was highest at 38.6 pc in Boudh, 28.8 pc in Cuttack, 26.7 pc in Jajpur, 26.5 pc in Mayurbhanj, 26.3 pc in Angul and 26.1 pc in Puri.The fresh infections have pushed the State’s total coronavirus tally to 7,03,441 of which 6,01,224 have recovered including 11,614 bringing down the active caseload to 99,648 from over one lakh on Sunday.
Odisha is now among the top eight States that cumulatively account for 71.6 pc of India’s total active cases. Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Odisha, Rajasthan, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh reported 81.08 pc of the 2,22,315 new cases registered in the last 24 hours.Director of Public Health Dr Niranjan Mishra said the cases have started declining in the worst-hit western Odisha and overall Covid curve is in a state of plateau. Hopefully, the situation in coastal and central regions, which saw a rise in cases following increased testing, will also improve soon, he added.