Bhubaneswar: The COVID-19 toll in Odisha touched 8,666 with 18 more deaths being confirmed by the Health Department after an audit on Thursday.
While the details of the deceased have not been yet shared, available data showed that three deaths each have been reported from Bhadrak, Cuttack, Jatsinghpur, Khurda and Sundargarh and one each from Balasore, Deogarh and Nayagarh.
Odisha had seen 19 casualties the previous day and among them were three children aged 4, 14 and 15 years.
Notably, the state saw fatalities in single digits till Thursday (January 27) and none the following day. Ten deaths were reported on January 28 and another 15 on January 29. The COVID tally was highest in five months on January 30 when 19 deaths were confirmed after an audit. Odisha saw 18 more deaths due to the deadly disease on Monday (January 31) and 17 on Tuesday (February 1).
Odisha had reported a total of 147 COVID deaths in January.
While seven children below 0-18 years had succumbed to the deadly disease in January when the state was hit by the third wave of COVID with the youngest being 3 days old, five in the age group have so far died in February.
Over 50 children had died during the second wave.
There were 56 casualties in December. As many as 80 COVID deaths were confirmed in November, 134 in October and 346 in September. Similarly, 2,056 fatalities were registered in August, while July saw 1,903 deaths, June 1,272 and May 737, said sources in the Health Department.
