BHUBANESWAR: Five more COVID-19 patients, all men, succumbed to the virus in Odisha in the last 24 hours in the biggest single-day toll in the state so far. With this, the number of deaths in the state due to COVID-19 rose to 34.
While three persons, aged 50, 35 and 27, who died while undergoing treatment in COVID hospitals, were from Ganjam, two others, aged 51 and 64, belonged to Bhubaneswar.
One of the patients from the city was suffering from pleural tuberculosis and another was diabetic. The 50-year-old patient of Ganjam was suffering from diabetes and hypertension. However, the death of two youth in the district has spread panic among the migrants.
With the three deaths, the toll in Ganjam reached 20. While seven have died in Khurda and four in Cuttack, one each succumbed in Puri, Bargarh and Angul. Of the 34 deaths, 15 are aged above 60 years and the rest in the age group of 25 to 60.
The state recorded 495 new cases from 24 districts taking the total number of COVID-19 cases to 8601. While 355 were from quarantine centres, 140 were local contacts. As many as 312 local cases (24 per cent) have been found in the last three days.
Of the fresh cases, the maximum of 216 were detected from Ganjam, 50 from Khurda, 36 from Sundargarh, 28 from Mayurbhanj, 24 from Angul, 18 from Puri, 13 from Balasore and 12 each from Bhadrak and Jagatsinghpur.
As coronavirus cases continue to rise unabated in Ganjam, the state government on Saturday deputed two IAS officers and six OAS officers to the migration prone coastal district for effective management of the outbreak. The district has so far registered 2066 cases.
Deputy Secretary of Works department Parul Patawari and Project Director of DRDA, Puri Vishal Singh have been posted as special Additional District Magistrate of Ganjam for effective control and management of the situation.
Patawari and Singh will be in charge of Chhatrapur and Bhanjanagar sub-divisions respectively, in dealing with the coronavirus outbreak.
Meanwhile, the Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) has enforced a shutdown till July 8 midnight in the Millennium city, which has recorded 77 cases in the last three days.