BHUBANESWAR: Despite weekend shutdown, the State Capital recorded its second highest single-day spike of Covid-19 cases on Sunday.
Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials said 16 new positive cases, including a local who works in a private hospital, were reported in the Capital in the last 24 hours taking the COVID-19 tally of the city to 122. The highest 24-hour spike of 18 cases was reported in the City two months back on April 5.
Three persons, all from a family at Shree Vihar in Patia, having link with a positive case, and a 72-year-old man and 71-year-old woman from Jaydev Vihar, having travel history to USA, were tested positive for the virus. Similarly, two persons from a family in Sastri Nagar with travel history to Kolkata, a 22-year-old youth from Dumduma Phase-I having travel history to Pune and a 34-year-old male from Kalinga Nagar, having travel history to Oman, were tested positive in the City.
A 60-year-old woman from Unit-3 Masjid Colony, whose relative has returned from Kolkata, has been tested positive. Besides, four others from Satya Nagar, Jadupur, Nayapalli Sabar Sahi, and Rasulgarh Netaji Vihar having travel history to Delhi, Chennai and Gurgaon also tested Covid-19 positive. A 25-year-old man from Kapileswar Vihar of Palasuni with local travel history to Bhadrak was also tested positive for coronavirus.
BMC officials said the 32-year-old employee of the hospital, who tested positive for the virus, has no travel history. The health department and civic body officials, who are carrying out contact tracing, are yet to find the source of infection in the case.
"We will collect swab samples of all family members of the patient as well as six persons from the hospital who have come in contact with him directly. His immediate neighbours and secondary contacts have been put under quarantine," an official from the BMC said.
He said that primary and secondary contacts and neighbours of other 15 patients have also been quarantined and further contact tracing is in progress.
After detection of the new cases, the number of active cases in the City has also jumped to 60. Meanwhile, a COVID-19 patient in Salia Sahi, who was detected on June 4, has recovered on Sunday. Active surveillance in other city slums is going on.