BHUBANESWAR: As the State Capital continues to report over 100 cases daily, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Saturday announced to set up new testing facilities at the Urban Community Health Centres (CHCs) and Primary Health Centres (PHCs) in the city.
Municipal Commissioner Prem Chandra Chaudhary said the civic body will announce the list of CHCs and PHCs for the purpose soon. “Our main focus is on testing, contract tracing, shifting and treatment,” he said and added that testing capacity has been increased by 30 per cent since July 29.
The average daily testing capacity has been increased from 1,400 to around 1,800 in the last one week. More than 2,000 tests were conducted on August 6 and 7. Between July 29 and August 7, the civic body has conducted 17,634 tests of which 1,262 persons were tested positive for the virus, he informed.
“The voluntary testing continues to remain very less which is delaying detection of the infection,” Chaudhary said. Similarly, the number of vehicles for shifting of patients to Covid hospitals has been increased from 14 to 24, he said.
On Saturday, the city reported 190 new cases including 21 from Kancha Sahi in Kapileswar, seven from Nayapalli Behera Sahi and six from Bomikhal. All the persons in the locality were in quarantine after coming in contact with Covid patients, BMC officials said.
Of the total cases, 138 were reported from quarantine and 52 local cases. With the new cases, the Covid tally of the city increased to 3,763 including 1,383 active cases and 2,360 recoveries. Of the active cases, 207 are from slums. As many as 515 asymptomatic and mild symptomatic patients in the city have opted home isolation of which 327 have already recovered, officials said.
80 per cent Khurda villages in green zone
Bhubaneswar: As Khurda continued to report highest number of daily cases for the second day, Collector Sanat Kumar Mohanty on Saturday said around 80 per cent villages in the district are still in green zone. With 274 new cases in the last 24 hours, the Covid tally of the district has increased to 6,013 of which 3,244 are active cases - highest among all districts in the State. More than 61 per cent of these cases are from Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) area.
Besides, 18 deaths have been reported from BMC area, while 16 fatalities have been recorded in other parts of the district. The Collector said, “Of 1,358 villages in the district, the virus spread has been detected in 276 villages. Remaining 1,082 villages are still in green zone and we have taken all measures to check spread of the virus further.” In rural Khurda, the total number of cases stands at 1,701 of which 901 are active cases.
“We have tagged 27 places in Bolagarh, Tangi, Banapur and Begunia as containment zones,” he added. The Collector said 470 migrants who had returned to different blocks of the district had tested positive and all have been cured. Besides, 76 frontline workers infected with the virus are undergoing treatment. “The district, excluding BMC area, has around 2.71 lakh families. All of them have been covered in surveillance twice,” Mohanty said.