TPR drops below 10 per cent in State

BHUBANESWAR: The test positivity rate (TPR) dropped below 10 per cent (pc) after over a fortnight in Odisha as the new Covid-19 cases continued to fall for the seventh consecutive day on Tuesday. The State reported 5,892 fresh cases and seven deaths in the last 24 hours.

The fresh infections came down by around 18 pc from 7,291 cases recorded the previous day. The drop in daily case count has been attributed to the declining number of tests which plunged to 59,807 on Sunday from over 70,000 a few days back. Of the new cases, 852 were in the 0-18 age group. Khurda accounted for the highest number of infections with 1,500 persons testing positive, followed by Sundargarh (501) and Cuttack (482) cases.

The TPR dropped to 9.8 pc from 11.7 pc a day back. The decline in the positive cases notwithstanding, there has been no let up in fatalities as seven more patients, aged 10 to 88 years, succumbed to the virus in the State taking the death toll to 8,532. Three deaths were reported from Khurda (including one in Bhubaneswar) and one each from Dhenkanal, Jajpur, Jharsuguda and Kendrapara. The deceased included a 10-year-old from Jharsuguda and two middle-aged without any comorbidities.

The State health officials, however, claimed that the positivity rate is coming down which means that the infection is slowing down. “However, the districts have been asked to reduce the number of tests and maintain the target of testing over 70,000 samples a day,” said an official.