BHUBANESWAR: Four districts came under red zone as Odisha reported over 3,000 new Covid-19 cases for the second consecutive day. The State logged 3,144 cases and four fatalities in the last 24 hours.
The death of four Covid patients in a day was highest in the last over three months. in December, 2020, four people succumbed when 263 people had tested positive.
Health department sources said of the fresh cases, 1,823 were detected among the suspects undergoing quarantine and 1,321 local infections.
More than 100 new infections each were from nine districts and over 50 cases each were from seven districts.
Sundargarh registered the maximum 523 cases followed by Khurda (497), Nuapada (395), Bargarh (156), Sambalpur (149), Cuttack (140), Puri (129), Keonjhar (128) and Jharsuguda (119).
With more than 1,000 active cases, Sundargarh, Khurda, Sambalpur and Nuapada districts categorised as red zone.
Apart from other districts bordering Chhattisgarh, urban pockets of Cuttack, Balasore, Puri and Keonjhar continued to remain as areas of concern for the State administration.
New clusters emerged at industrial townships in the State with a sizeable population of migrant workers from states like West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.
Ten districts having proximity with Chhattisgarh put together 1,605 cases contributing 52 per cent (pc) of the daily caseload. The State conducted 37,245 tests, up from 31,891 tests a day before, slightly bringing down the test positivity rate from 9.7 pc to 8.44 pc.
Three men, aged 38, 50 and 62 and a woman of 60 years, all having comorbidities, succumbed taking the death toll to 1,942.
The fatalities were reported from Balangir, Jharsuguda, Kalahandi and Sambalpur. Of the 3,64,594 confirmed cases, 3,61,296 patients have recovered so far. The State has 17,774 active cases and 1,420 among them have been hospitalised.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has appealed to people not to lower guard.
“The fight against Covid-19 is at a critical stage. Let’s all continue to follow Covid protocols and maintain social distancing. Let us fight the second wave of the pandemic with the same spirit and determination as earlier,” he said.