COVID 3rd Wave: Odisha Staring At Delhi-Like Situation With R-Value Crossing 1!

Bhubaneswar: After almost a gap of five months, the daily COVID caseload in Odisha surged past the 1000-mark on Wednesday as 1216 people tested positive for the virus in the last 24 hours.

It was a jump of 79 per cent since the previous day and five districts – Khurda, Sundargarh, Sambalpur, Cuttack and Jajpur – contributed to 70 per cent of the new infections.

Speaking to the media, Director, Health Services, Bijay Kumar Mohapatra said that at this current rate of infection, a Delhi-like situation cannot be ruled out. “The positive rate has gone past 1 per cent. Delhi saw a rise from 1 per cent to 3 per cent and a similar situation can arise in Odisha. Efforts are on to break the infection chain. The focus is on testing, tracking and vaccination. Hospital infrastructure is being strengthened and an adequate number of beds have been arranged,” he said.

A third wave now seems imminent with the rising R-value, which is an indicator of the next wave.

According to Chennai-based Institute of Mathematical Sciences (IMSc) researchers, the R-value for Odisha went up from 0.85 during December 23-27 to 1.3 in December 28-January 2,

The R estimation for seven districts was more than the state average during the period. The R-value was the highest 2.38 in Sundargarh, 2.22 in Puri, 1.99 in Cuttack city, 1.5 in Khurda, 1.62 in Sambalpur, 1.47 in Balasore and 1.35 in Ganjam.