BHUBANESHWAR: A 79-year-old woman died of Swine flu in Odisha on Wednesday, taking the total death toll in the state to four.
Her death was the third reported from the state since Monday evening. The disease claimed two lives on Tuesday.
A native of Jagatsinghpur’s Tirtol, the 79-year-old was admitted to a private hospital on August 1.
All the four deaths in the state were recorded in the last one week.
So far during the season, 71 cases of H1N1 have been reported from the state. In the last nine days, at least 64 fresh cases have turned up. The transmission rate has been alarming. At least 27 per cent of the 257 samples collected from the state tested positive.
On Wednesday alone, 12 cases new cases of the flu were reported in the state.
Of the 12 people who tested positive on Wednesday, ten have been admitted to various private hospitals across the city. Two of them are lodged at SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack.
Although children below the age of five and people above 60 are thought to be more vulnerable, many of those who tested positive were young.
Seven of them were from Khurda district, two from Cuttack and one each from Jajpur, Sundargarh and West Bengal.
Meanwhile, the Health Department confirmed that it received at least 25,000 Oseltamivir, 500 N-95 masks and as many numbers of Oseltamivir syrup bottles and PPE kits.