‘Odisha’s COVID-19 Positivity Rate Of 6.2% Is A Good Sign’

Bhubaneswar: Odisha has conducted 2459000 COVID-19 tests between July 1 and September 15 and the positivity rate is 6.2 per cent.

“This is less than the national average of 8.4 per cent and it’s a good sign,” said Secretary, Union Health Ministry, Rajesh Bhushan, while stressing that the number of tests has to be seen in tandem with positivity rate.

“Test numbers on its own won’t give any significant input to us,” he said.

He said that states, which are reporting a higher positivity rate amid an increase in tests, have been asked to ramp up the testing further.

“We took 27 days to conduct 2 crore COVID-19 tests but only 10 days to jump from 4 crore to 5 crore tests,” he said.

Bhusan further said that 14 states and Union Territories in India have less than 5000 active cases and another 18 have between 5000 and 50,000 such cases. Only four states have more than 50,000 active cases.

He said that 60 per cent of active cases are concentrated in five states – Maharashtra (29.5 per cent), Karnataka (almost 10 per cent), Andhra Pradesh (9.4 per cent), Uttar Pradesh (6.8 per cent) and Tamil Nadu (4.7 per cent).

Odisha has so far reported 158650 positive cases, having tested a total of 2516457 samples. While the virus has claimed 645 lives, 122024 patients have recovered from the infection so far. The state has 35928 active cases.