BHUBANESWAR: As the new COVID-19 cases in the districts bordering Chhattisgarh continued to surge, Odisha government on Thursday asked the officials to ramp up health infrastructure in their respective areas to tackle the impending challenges.
The State witnessed a steep rise in new cases as 394 people tested positive in last 24 hours. This was the highest spike in daily count in three months. After remaining over 200 for seven days consecutively, the number of new cases rose by 33 per cent over the previous day’s caseload of 297.
The infections spread across 25 of 30 districts in the State pushing the active cases over 2,000. Health officials said the new cases are on the rise in Nuapada, Bargarh, Sundargarh and Kalahandi districts due to inter-state movement of people to Chhattisgarh, which has turned out to be an epicentre of coronavirus resurgence.
However, the spurt in Khurda and Cuttack is mainly due to cluster outbreaks in the educational institutions.
Additional Chief Secretary (Health) PK Mohapatra said apart from conducting aggressive testing and contact tracing, the districts have been directed to keep hospital beds with oxygen supply ready to meet any eventualities. "The SCB MCH has been asked for the readiness of 250 beds. The bed strength in Bhubaneswar will be increased as per requirement," he said.
The State has 2,845 beds in government facilities and 95 in private hospitals besides, 174 and 115 ICU beds and 85 and 135 ventilators respectively. Of the fresh cases, Khurda district topped the chart with 70 cases, followed by Kalahandi (43), Nuapada (40), Bargarh (34), Sundargarh (31), Cuttack (27) and Angul (24).The active cases stand at 2,125.
The test positivity rate also went up to 1.34 per cent from 1 per cent a day before. The State conducted 29,260 tests during the period. With this, the tally rose to 3,41,311 of which 3,37,212 patients have recovered and 1,921 succumbed.