Bhubaneswar: Odisha saw 40% spike in fresh COVID infections with 308 cases being detected in the last 24 hours, the state health department informed on Sunday.
While the state now has 1,505 active cases, the daily test positivity rate stands at 5.1% with these cases being detected from 5931 samples. 97 patients have been cured of the infection in the last 24 hours, it added.
One more death due to the disease has also been confirmed, taking this year’s tally to 3. The deceased has been identified as a 70 years old man of Sonepur district. He was also suffering from diabetes mellitus, hypertension and cerebro vascular accident. Those who succumbed to COVID were suffering from comorbidities and had tested positive during the mandatory testing conducted for ICU admissions, sources said.
On Saturday, the Odisha government directed districts to step up testing and keep a close watch on COVID patients in home isolation to prevent the further spread of infection after more than 1,000 new cases and two deaths were reported in last one week. Sundargarh, Nabarangpur, Cuttack and Sambalpur have maximum active cases. Among them, 26 are in hospitals and four in ICU.
Sources attributed the spread of cases in Nabarangpur to two persons, who had attended a local mela. One of them was from Chhattisgarh. Most cases have been reported from bordering Raigarh and Umerkote blocks from where people usually frequent to the neighbouring state.
A team of officials led by Public Health Director Niranjan Mishra will be visiting Nabarangpur, Malkangiri and some other districts from Monday, the sources added.
