Odisha Reports Lowest Single-Day COVID Count In 2 Years; Active Cases Highest In Ganjam

Bhubaneswar: Odisha on Monday reported the lowest single-day count since May 2020 with 40 people testing positive for COVID-19 in the last 24 hours against 45 the previous day.

The coastal state had logged 23 single-day cases on May 12, 2020.

Ganjam district, which had been moving in the opposite direction with cases in double digits for the last one week, also saw a sharp fall from 11 to one in the last 24 hours.

Of the total 600 active cases, Ganjam alone has 85 followed by 49 in Sundargarh and 41 in Gajapati, which topped the district tally with 9 cases on Monday.

On March 18, Ganjam district – the epicentre of the pandemic during the first wave in 2020 – contributing 32 cases, the highest among all districts, amid a slight surge in case with 105 people being found infected. While the Health Department officials attributed it to release of backlog of the previous day, scientists of the coronavirus genomic surveillance consortium had a word of caution with cases rises in several countries.

With daily caseload dropping below 50 on March 20 and remaining so the following day, Odisha can now heave a sigh of relief and expect a similar trend in the coming days.