BHUBANESWAR: With only 342 people testing positive for Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, the R-value dropped below one, which was during the November-December period in the State, indicating the early turnaround of the Omicron wave.
Of the fresh cases spread over all 30 districts, 86 were of the 0-18 years age group, the lowest since the beginning of the third wave. The overall test positivity rate (TPR) also dropped to 0.5 per cent (pc) during the period.
Barring four districts, the TPR in all other districts has gone down below one pc. It was the maximum 2.69 pc in Gajapati, followed by 1.13 pc in Jharsuguda, 1.04 pc in Rayagada and 1.01 pc in Sundargarh.In terms of cases, the highest 39 cases were from Sundargarh, 32 from Khurda, 29 from Gajapati, 24 from Sambalpur and 20 each from Cuttack and Jajpur.
Seventeen districts reported cases in single digit. Sundargarh continued to be a table topper for the last couple of days surpassing Khurda, which registered over 1,000 cases for more than one and a half months. The spike was noticed from Sundargarh at the beginning of the third wave.
The State had recorded 298 cases on January 1 and the infections soared to 424 the following day. There had been no decline in the number of cases until it peaked on January 19 with 11,607 cases. The rate of infection and number of cases gradually fell thereafter.
Health officials hinted this could be an indicator to conclude that the third wave is coming to an end and the Covid-19 pandemic would soon be endemic if there is no emergence of new variants.
Director of Health Services Dr Bijay Mohapatra said the drop in a number of cases during the rural polls despite around 60,000 tests a day is definitely a positive sign and the declining trend matched with the model forecast.
“Though it will be wise to wait for at least a week to get a definite answer on the trend, we are pretty much sure that the pandemic is becoming endemic soon. The State is placed well with over 80 pc of the population double dose vaccinated. No one should panic for the next wave unless there is a new variant,” he said with the important caveat - ‘provided all Covid related precautions are taken.'
The active cases came down to 3523 after 797 patients recovered on Wednesday. Twenty districts have less than 100 active cases.