BHUBANESWAR: The new Covid-19 cases surged past the 3000-mark in Odisha with 3108 people testing positive and three succumbing to the disease in the last 24 hours.
The daily count was highest in the past six months as 3144 infections were detected on October 7 last year. However, the alarming current test positivity rate (TPR) describes how much worse the second wave is when compared to the first one.
The TPR shot up close to 10 percent (pc) within a month and the doubling rate came down to five days from around seven days calculated the previous week. The TPR on October 7, 2020 was 6.3 percent.
Health department sources said, of the fresh cases, 1806 were in quarantine and the rest 1302 were local infections. Eleven districts logged more than 100 cases and six recorded above 50 cases.
Khurda district reported the maximum 534 new cases, followed by Sundargarh (523), Cuttack (163), Nabarangpur (156), Sambalpur (153), Balasore (151), Nuapada (140), Balangir (133), Bargarh (132), Puri (114) and Keonjhar (105).
Ten districts - Sundargarh, Nabarangpur, Sambalpur, Nuapada, Balangir, Bargarh, Jharsuguda, Kalahandi, Koraput and Malkangiri, bordering Chhattisgarh registered 1407 cases contributing nearly 45 pc of the caseload.
While the border routes have been sealed, wary of a devastating second wave, the state government has imposed weekend shutdown in these districts from Saturday and revised the timings of night curfew, already in force from 10 pm-5 am to 6 pm-5 am.
The Naveen Patnaik government has also clamped night curfew from 9 pm to 5 am in the urban areas of the rest 20 districts and suspended inter-state bus operations. Though the intra-state services will continue as per seating arrangements, the political, cultural, academic and religious congregations have been banned with immediate effect.
With the new infections, the tally soared to 3,61,450 of which 3,42,570 have recovered. Three more people, one each from Sambalpur, Balangir and Ganjam, succumbed to the disease taking the death toll 1938. The active cases stand at 16889.