BHUBANESWAR: The test positivity rate (TPR) may have come down below five per cent (pc) in half of Odisha, but the State government on Friday made it clear that the decision on phase-wise unlock process will be taken next week after observing the Covid situation.
Director of Public Health Dr Niranjan Mishra said though the new cases have posted a steady decline in most of the districts, there is no relief yet as the daily caseload is still more than that of the peak period of the first wave.
“The average TPR is down to less than eight pc. This will further decline in the coming days. The ongoing lockdown ends on June 17. The Covid situation will be reviewed after Raja festival and the government will decide whether the restrictions will be extended in some areas or go for graded unlock,” he said.
The State recorded 5,235 new Covid-19 cases and 43 fatalities in last 24 hours pushing the tally to 8,42,461 and death toll to 3,210. While 2,957 persons are in quarantine, the rest 2,278 were detected during contact tracing.
Coastal districts continued to be a concern for the health administration as with 726 infections, Khurda topped the tally followed by Cuttack (557), Jajpur (394), Balasore (320), Mayurbhanj (285), Angul (277) and Sundargarh (251). Twelve districts recorded cases in double digits.
As many as 65,635 tests, including 20,243 through RT-PCR, have been conducted bringing down the TPR to 7.97 pc from 8.7 pc the previous day. Twelve districts have the TPR of less than five pc and 11 districts have TPR between five pc and 10 pc.
The districts which reported positivity rate more than 10 pc are Jajpur (20.8 pc), Cuttack (13.9 pc), Puri (12.7 pc), Khurda (12.6 pc), Mayurbhanj (12.1 pc), Nayagarh (12 pc) and Kendrapara (10.1 pc). The active cases stood at 57,710.
“Measures taken during the lockdown have yielded results. Testing has been intensified in the districts having high positive rate. Focus is on Khurda, Cuttack, Puri, Jajpur, Balasore, Mayurbhanj and Kendrapara. The unlock process is likely to start in the districts which have less than five pc TPR in last two weeks,” added Dr Mishra.