Bhubaneswar: The COVID-19 cases in Odisha climbed to double digits on Sunday with three more persons testing positive for the virus in the last 24 hours.
Confirming the number, Dr Nilakantha Mishra said that seven plus two cases were detected earlier and three more people have tested positive for the virus, taking the tally to 12. “All patients are in home quarantine and their condition is stable,” he said.
On an 85-year-old man succumbing to the virus, Mishra said that the state’s Health and Family Welfare Department has not received any official report on the death. “Our field units are conducting inquiries to ascertain any death due to COVID,” he said.
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The Odisha government has received updated COVID management guidelines from the Centre and is actively implementing those, he said, adding that there is not reason to panic as mild sub-variants of Omicron are causing the infection.
In May, the state had reported eight cases – five from Bhubaneswar, two from Cuttack and one from Khurda. Of the five samples sequenced, two were identified as LF.7.9 and three as XFG, both Omicron descendants linked to the prolonged COVID waves of 2020-22 that caused millions of deaths, according to sources in Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG). These sub-variants, now driving cases in India, are derived from the JN.1 variant, which fuelled global waves in late 2023 and early 2024.
Meanwhile, India’s COVID tally has touched 3758, with Kerala (1400) contributing the majority of infections. A total of 363 people tested positive while two persons – a 63-year-old man from Karnataka and a 24-year-old female from Kerala – died of the infection in the last 24 hours. There have been 28 deaths this season.
