BHUBANESWAR: Even as fresh Covid-19 cases fell below the 2,500 mark in the State, there is no let-up in the fatalities as the State recorded 23 deaths during the last 24 hours. The deceased included a one-year-old boy from Koraput district.
Khurda reported the maximum nine deaths, including five from Bhubaneswar, followed by three from Puri, two each from Koraput and Nayagarh and one each from Bhadrak, Jagatsinghpur, Ganjam, Kandhamal, Keonjhar, Kalahandi and Balangir.
While three patients, aged 35, 51 and 56, had no comorbidities, others in the age group of 43 to 88 years were suffering from underlying health conditions.
With this, the cumulative death toll in the State has gone up to 8,734. Continuing the downward trend, the fresh infections dropped to 2,106, including 324 from the 0-18 age group. The overall test positivity rate (TPR) also came down to 3.48 per cent during the period.
The TPR was the highest 10.9 per cent in Sundargarh, 6.6 per cent in Gajapati, 6.5 per cent in Khurda, 4.8 per cent in Angul and 4.7 per cent in Nayagarh.
Barring Khurda, Cuttack and Sundargarh, all other districts reported less than 100 cases each. Khurda district recorded the highest 429 new cases followed by Sundargarh (219), Cuttack (145), Angul (97) and Kendrapara (76) taking the tally to 12.66 lakh.
The active case load stood at 20,048 after recovery of 3,624 patients. Except Khurda, which is still in the red zone and Cuttack, Sundargarh and Jajpur under yellow zone, all other districts are under green category following a significant drop in number of active cases.