BHUBANESWAR: Odisha on Friday reported 2,070 new cases and 64 fatalities taking the cumulative death toll to 4,925. The State has added 37,042 new cases and 862 deaths in last 15 days. Of the fresh infections, Khurda and Cuttack led the tally with 446 and 319 cases respectively, followed by Balasore (176), Jajpur (136), Puri (110) and Jagatsinghpur (97). The State had conducted 70,244 tests leading to a positivity rate of 2.94 pc. However, the TPR was 6.4 pc in Cuttack and 5.2 pc in Nayagarh.
The highest 22 fatalities were reported from Khurda, eight from Balasore, seven from Sundargarh, six from Ganjam, two each from Kandhamal and Sambalpur and one each from Boudh, Kalahandi, Kendrapara, Mayurbhanj, Nuapada, Puri, and Rayagada.
Health authorities, however, claimed that the Covid situation in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack was in a plateau stage as the daily positive cases are hovering around 200 to 300 for last several days. Attributing it to the movement of people to Bhubaneswar and Cuttack from outside, Director of Health Services Dr Bijay Mohapatra said a joint effort of community and government is required to control the pandemic.
“The government has been taking several measures, but the contribution of the community is the need of
the hour,” he said and added that the hospitalisation has come down as disease severity is down following vaccination.