Odisha: Thirty-three die of Covid in single-day high as cases surge in coastal areas

BHUBANESWAR: Thirty-three people succumbed to coronavirus on Tuesday in highest single-day casualty since the outbreak of the disease in March last year, taking the toll to 2,549. The day also saw 10,939 more getting infected of Covid. The fresh cases were from 62,261 samples tested, a positivity rate of 17.56%.
With Covid infection in the second wave penetrating the hinterlands, lack of awareness among villagers, hesitancy to go for test, fear of being hospitalised and self-medication are factors leading to increased fatalities.Experts said the death figure in itself looks big, but in proportion to daily caseload, it is still very low compared to the first wave.
“Death count is increasing but it is still at a low considering the state reporting around 10,000 positive cases daily. In the first wave, the doctors did not have fair knowledge about the treatment and infrastructure was also not adequate to support emergency care. This time, we have to deal with unexpected fatalities,” said Dr Manoj Sahu, senior gastroenterologist at SUM Hospital who is also overseeing Covid management.
He further said that most of the people with symptoms in villagers are not seeking doctor’s advice nor are they undergoing Covid test.
Curiously, the new trend that has emerged in the past one week is that regions which witnessed early Covid surge are now witnessing a gradual decline in daily cases, while the ones with recent surge are seeing an aggressive rise. Cases are ballooning in central, east-central and coastal Odisha districts, which experts say will take between one week and 10 days to stabilise.
“Till the lockdown was enforced, people were staying in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar. When the weekend shutdown came into force, city dwellers started moving to the hinterlands. This led to the spread of infection in villages in many coastal pockets. Secondly, semi-skilled workers from Kendrapada, Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur and other parts started returning home, adding to the burgeoning number of cases,” observed Dr Alok Kanungo.
Health department data said Khurda district reported 1298 new cases on Tuesday, the most, while Cuttack took second spot with 922 cases. Barring these two coastal districts, which since the beginning of the second wave have been reporting huge numbers, the other coastal districts are seeing recent surge. Districts in central Odisha like Angul and Dhenkanal have been reporting between 700-800 cases daily. On Tuesday, Angul reported 819 cases while neighbouring Dhenkanal reported 763.
Lack of awareness among villagers and hesitancy to go for test leading to rise
in cases