BHUBANESWAR: Amid surge in Covid-19 cases in the state, Sonepur and Sambalpur districts reported a weekly test positivity rate (TPR) of 10 per cent warranting cluster containment measures and enforcement of protocol to curb the infection.
As per statistics shared by the Ministry of Health, the weekly positivity rate was 10.8 pc in Sonepur and 9.6 pc in Sambalpur between April 5 and 11. Three other districts that recorded a TPR of over 5 per cent are Sundargarh (9.1 per cent), Balangir (7.6 per cent) and Nabarangpur (5.4 per cent). Health department sources said three districts Nabarangpur, Sambalpur and Sundargarh have been recording more than 30 cases each daily for last four days.
The state reported 200 new Covid cases in last 24 hours taking the active tally to 1,102. The active cases crossed the 1,000 mark in Odisha after six months. The new cases were detected from 4,904 samples. Sundargarh recorded the highest 46 cases, followed by 37 from Nabarangpur, 31 from Cuttack, 20 from Nuapada, 15 from Khurda, 13 from Balangir and 10 from Mayurbhanj. Bhubaneswar registered 13 new cases.
Of the fresh cases spread across 18 districts, 49 were aged below 18 years. Health experts said the rise in juvenile cases indicates the infection, which was confined to only the adult population during this wave, has started spreading among children.
The daily test positivity rate has also soared to four per cent (pc) from two pc a couple of days ago. Health officials said the positivity rate rose due to drop in testing in some districts. The number of tests has dropped from a range of 6,000 to less than 5,000.
“We have called a meeting with CDMOs and district officials on Saturday to discuss testing and containment measures. People are hiding their symptoms and not coming for testing. Districts have been asked to keep a tab on this and people have been advised to follow Covid appropriate behaviour,” said director of health services Dr Bijay Mohapatra.