Odisha Sees Slight Drop In New COVID Infections; TPR Rises To 5.7%

Bhubaneswar: Odisha on Monday saw a slight drop in new COVID infections with 268 cases being detected in the last 24 hours, according to the state health department.

With these cases being detected from 4629 samples, the test positivity rate (TPR) stood at 5.7 per cent. The state also saw 103 recoveries.

The daily COVID caseload had crossed 300-mark with a TPR of 5.19 per cent the previous day. Of the 308 new cases detected from 5,931 samples, around 20 per cent were children and adolescents below 18 years and 90 per cent local contact cases. Sundargarh, Nabarangpur, Sambalpur and Cuttack accounted for nearly 60 per cent of the caseload, sources added.

With Odisha being is one of the 10 states fuelling the country’s COVID tally, the state government has directed all districts to intensify contact tracing and testing to curb the infection.

The state has also seen three COVID deaths this year. Since all three deceased had comorbidities and two among them were aged above 60 years, the department has appealed to people with comorbid conditions and senior citizens to follow COVID-appropriate behaviour even if fully vaccinated with precaution dose.