BHUBANESWAR: Close to 50 per cent of cases reported in the Capital in the last 24 hours are locally transmitted including a cluster outbreak of seven cases in Sikharchandi Nagar. Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials said 198 new cases were detected during the last 24 hours of which, 104 persons were in quarantine while 94 persons had been infected by the virus locally.
In Sikharchandi Nagar of city’s North Zone, seven persons, all male in the age group of 25 to 52 years old, were tested positive raising concern for the civic body as their source of infection remains unknown.
Apart from the seven cases, three persons each from Chandrasekharpur, Satya Vihar, Saheed Nagar, Patrapada, Gajapati Nagar and Nayapalli were also locally infected.
The cases of quarantine included seven employees of a security agency, six persons from Salia Sahi slum and four cases from Chandrasekharpur HB Colony. Four police staff were also tested positive during this period. The Covid tally of Bhubaneswar increased to 5,487 including 1,887 recoveries. The city also reported two more fatalities taking the Covid toll to 27.
BMC officials said further contact tracing is in progress to trace source of infection in local cases and identify their primary and secondary contacts. Meanwhile, with the pandemic turning out to be traumatic for persons with disabilities (PwD), the BMC organised a special testing camp for the differently-abled persons.
20 per cent patients opted for home isolation
More than 1,000 asymptomatic and mild symptomatic patients, around 20 per cent of the total cases reported in the State Capital, have opted home isolation so far. BMC officials said the total number of Covid-19 cases obtaining home isolation touched 1,035 on Monday. Sixty per cent of the patients, however, have recovered from the infection, they said. “As many as 608 patients have recovered during their home isolation while 427 are still in active category,” they said. Persons not having any co-morbidity are allowed to stay in home isolation under supervision of the nodal or ward officers provided they have adequate facility to maintain strict isolation from others for a minimum 10 days after obtaining their test. BMC officials said the Government has started providing home isolation kit to persons opting it.