COVID 3rd Wave In Odisha Likely To Peak By Jan-End With 30,000-40,000 Daily Cases

Bhubaneswar: The COVID-19 cases in Odisha will peak by January end with 30,000 daily infections as Omicron is 4 times more transmissible than Delta, eminent neuro-surgeon Dr Ashok Mohapatra told the media on Thursday.

The state might see 30-40 deaths a day during the peak period, he said.

Notably, the latest genome sequencing of community samples at the Institute of Life Sciences (ILS), Bhubaneswar, has revealed that the third wave in the state is not being driven by Omicron and Delta continues to be the dominant variant of concern.

Also Read: COVID Cases To Cross 2nd Wave Peak; Delta Not Omicron Drives The Surge In Odisha, Check ILS Study

While 170 in Odisha have so far been infected by this highly-mutated variant of COVID-19, sources said that many cases may have remained undetected due to inadequate lab facility for genome sequencing which is limited to only one at present.

Also Read: Odisha Reports A Big Jump In Omicron Cases

Mohapatra further that the vaccine doses received six months ago will no longer work. “Hence, administration of booster dose is necessary,” he added

Booster dose is currently being administered in the state but only to health and frontline workers and people above 60 years of age.

Meanwhile, the daily COVID caseload in Odisha has breached the 10,000-mark with 10059 more people, including 872 in the age group of 0-18 years, testing positive for the virus in the last 24 hours, till 9 am this morning.

The state had seen 8778 new infections on Wednesday and 7071 on Tuesday against 4829 and 4717 on Monday and Sunday respectively.

Also Read: Daily COVID Surge Continues In Odisha, Infection Crosses 10K-Mark

Earlier in the day, State Director of Health Services Bijay Mohapatra had said the single-day count in Odisha is likely to cross the second wave peak in the next few days.

Odisha had logged the highest single-day spike of 12,852 infections on May 22 last year.