Bhubaneswar: As predicted by the state government and health experts, August has proved to be the worst month so far as COVID-19 outbreak is concerned. If 10 districts have been registering 100 plus positive cases for the last few days, six districts neared the century mark in the last 24 hours.
Similarly, Balasore, Bargarh, Jagatsinghpur, Jharsuguda, Mayurbhanj and Koraput districts are surging towards 100-mark, putting the Health department in a spot.
Last two weeks, particularly, have witnessed horizontal spread of the pandemic taking the single-day positive cases to 3371 on Wednesday. It is no more confined to the migration prone districts as was suspected earlier.
As per the data of Health and Family Welfare department, the disease has spread almost like a blanket covering even some remote pockets. If the state’s average growth rate is 3.3%, it is 3.5 to 5 per cent in the high burden districts while positivity rate is 10 pc in districts like Khurda, Cuttack, Jajpur, Rayagada, Koraput, Malkangiri and Balasore.
If the authorities pointed at the return of migrant labourers for the spike in positive cases in Ganjam, now the increasing number of tests is attributed as the cause of the sudden surge.
Additional Chief Secretary PK Mohapatra said the detection of cases is linked to the rise in number of tests. “We have tested around 2.5 lakh samples in last four days. The accelerated testing will continue till the numbers are down,” the TNIE quoted him as saying.
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