BHUBANESWAR: The number of new Covid-19 cases in Odisha surged past the 1,000-mark on Tuesday, with the state reporting 1,282 cases of viral infections.
The infections rose by 46% over the previous day's count of 879 cases.
The daily caseload breached the 1,000-mark for the first time this year. Of the fresh cases spread across 28 districts, 755 were in quarantine and 527 local infections. The local transmission also saw a rise of 46% and the addition of 166 cases in a day.
The test positivity rate (TPR) shot up to 4.4% from 2.83% a day before. The state had conducted 29,081 tests during the period taking the total number of tests to over 93 lakh.
Three districts crossed a three-digit figure with Sundargarh registering maximum of 224 cases, followed by Khurda (192) and Kalahandi (108). Among other districts, 84 cases were detected in Bargarh, 82 each in Nuapada and Sambalpur, 63 in Cuttack, 52 in Mayurbhanj, 49 in Angul, 45 in Balangir, 36 in Jharsuguda, 32 in Ganjam, 28 in Puri, 27 in Nabarangpur, 26 Jajpur and 24 in Bhadrak.
Seven districts bordering Chhattisgarh recorded 569 cases accounting for around 44% of the daily caseload. Since the border districts emerged as hotspots, the Odisha government suspended all public transport from the state and vice versa till April 30.
People coming to Odisha from any parts of the country or outside by any means of transportation will have to produce a Covid-19 negative report or fully vaccination certificate from April 12 or else they will have to undergo a seven-day home or institutional quarantine.
Districts have been directed to set up and operationalise temporary medical centres/Covid care centres in clusters as per requirement for extending institutional quarantine facilities to returnees.
Meanwhile, two healthcare workers, including a lady doctor of Capital Hospital in Bhubaneswar tested positive for Covid-19 in the last two days.
Director of Capital Hospital Dr Laxmidhar Sahoo said contact tracing was done as per the protocol and those who had come in contact with them have tested negative. "The two found positive were vaccinated earlier. Their samples have been sent to the Regional Medical Research Centre for RT-PCR test once again," he said.
With the new cases, the tally soared to 3,46,808, of which 3,38,890 have recovered. One more Covid patient succumbed to the disease taking the death toll to 1924. The active cases climbed to 5,941.