Downward Trend In COVID Cases; Has Odisha Reached The 3rd Wave Peak?

Bhubaneswar: Odisha has been witnessing a downward trend in COVID-19 since January 12, but the drop has not been very significant, said Health Services Director Bijay Mohapatra on Sunday.

“The descend is despite more than 70,000 daily tests and this is a good sign since the positivity has dropped,” he said.

After inching closer to 17 per cent on January 19, the test positivity dropped to 11.74 per cent on Sunday (January 23).

There is a little deviation in those getting infected (elderly and children), he said. “We would be able to access the trend in another few days as it requires 10 to 12 days of study. It will also help us know if we have already reached the peak,” he said.

Experts had earlier opined that the third wave of COVID would reach its peak in Odisha by January-end.

Mohapatra further said that the hospitalisation rate has been low despite the high positivity rate in the state. “The number of people on ventilator support is also less,” he added.

Sunday saw a further dip in COVID-19 cases in Odisha with 8,520 patients, including 937 in the 0-18 age group, testing positive for the virus in the last 24 hours.

The state had reported 8,845 cases on Saturday (January 22), and 9,833 cases on Friday (January 21).

Fresh infections had dropped to 10,368 (January 20) after registering the highest single-day tally of 11,607 on Wednesday (January 19). The state had logged 11,086 fresh COVID-19 cases on Tuesday ((January 18) and 10,489 cases the day before (January 17), a slight drop from 11,177 on Sunday (January 16).

Notably, the state had reported only 298 cases on January 1. There was a gradual upward trend and the fresh infections crossed the 1000-mark on January 5. There was a consistent rise in cases till January 13, when the sing-day tally crossed 10,000 on with 10,059 people testing positive for the virus. The next two days saw 10,273 and 10,856 fresh infections.