75 COVID Patients On Ventilator! Rising Deaths Amid Falling Caseload Raises Concern In Odisha

Bhubaneswar: Though Odish has been witnessing a consistent fall in the daily caseload, the death rate due to COVID-19 has doubled in the last few days, raising concern.

Speaking to the media, a senior health official on Monday said that the mortality rate usually increases one month after the infections touch the peak.

“Usually, the number of deaths increases one month after the positive cases touch the peak. Over 2 lakh people were infected in January and if we calculate, the death rate is well below 0.50 per cent,” said Public Health Director Niranjan Mishra.

He further said that the Delta variant, which caused the devastating second wave, is still prevalent in the state and those down with the strain are also succumbing.

“The situation is improving as there has been a decline in the number of daily cases. The number of active cases is also falling, but we have not reached the bottom of the COVID graph yet,” Mishra said.

Odisha currently has 47210 active cases.

He also warned about a possible explosion of cases since Omicron, which is fast replacing Delta has high transmissibility.  “Therefore, we have to be cautious,” he added.

There has been a gradual fall in fresh infections since January 20 in the state, which witnessed a peak period between January 13 and 19 with a daily caseload of 10,000-11,000.

The daily caseload dropped below 4,000 on Monday (January 31) as 3,329 people were found infected in the last 24 hours against 4,843 the previous day (January 30), when a single-day spike in cases remained below 5,000 for the second consecutive day.

The figures during the third wave had first dropped below 5000 on Saturday (January 29) with 4842 people testing positive against 5,057 the previous day (January 28) and 5,901 on Thursday (January 27).  The state had reported 7,426 fresh infections on Wednesday (January 26), 5,891 on Tuesday (January 25) and 7,291 cases on Monday (January 24), 8,520 cases on January 23, 8,845 cases on January 22, and 9,833 cases on January 21.

Till Thursday (January 27), the state confirmed fatalities in single digits 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).

Among the deceased are three children aged 3-day, one and six.

A senior health official said that the trend will continue till the patient load on ventilators and ICU reduces. More than 75 COVID patients are still on ventilator support. Though the hospitalisation has been very less during the current wave of the pandemic, a number of patients have also been admitted to ICU, the official added.