BHUBANESWAR: Odisha on Monday registered 52 COVID-19 fatalities, the highest-ever in a single day, pushing the toll to 4,248, while 2,803 new cases raised the tally to 9,24,699, a health department official said.
Nine fatalities were reported from Khurda district, of which state capital Bhubaneswar is a part, five each from Ganjam, Kalahandi and Puri, four from Kendrapara and two each from Kandhamal and Mayurbhanj.
One person each succumbed to the infection in Bhadrak, Boudh, Dhenkanal, Jharsuguda, Keonjhar, Nayagarh, Nuapada and Sambalpur.
Taking to Twitter, the health department said, "Regret to inform the demise of fifty two Covid positive patients while under treatment in hospitals."
This apart, 53 other COVID-19 patients in the state have also died due to comorbidities.
As many as 8,90,778 patients have recovered in the coastal state, including 3,358 on Sunday.
Of the 2,803 new cases, 1,597 were recorded in quarantine centres, and the rest detected during contact tracing, the official said.
The state's overall positivity rate stands at 6.54 per cent, he said.
Khurda registered the maximum number of new cases at 475, followed by Cuttack at 441, Mayurbhanj at 193, Balasore at 155, Puri at 154.Odisha currently has 29,620 active cases.
Over 1.41 crore samples have been tested for COVID-19 thus far, including 74,740 on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the state government, apprehending the arrival of the third wave of the pandemic, has assigned additional responsibility of the Women and Child Development Department to senior officer P K Meherda, who has been serving as the secretary to the governor.
Meherda has worked for the health and family welfare department in the past.
N K Das, Odisha's health minister, asserted that the state is well-prepared to face the challenges of the possible third wave.
He said the department has already chalked out a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) and shared it with district collectors and municipal commissioners.
Health experts have suggested that the third wave might pose a bigger threat to children, and measures are being taken accordingly to combat any such situation, he said.
All district headquarters hospitals and sub-divisional hospitals have been directed to reserve at least 10 beds for isolating the suspected cases, the minister explained.
Similar steps will also be taken in community health centres, he said.
"Apart from that, additional beds, ICU facilities, paediatric intensive care units (PICU) and special newborn care units (SNCU) are being set up at government-run health centres.
The state has also decided to have a designated paediatric wing in the existing COVID-19 hospitals," Das added.