BHUBANESWAR: The Health and Family Welfare department has alerted the districts to remain prepared for the next wave, which may hit the State early next month post rural polls.
Although the new cases remained below 3,000 for the past couple of days, there are still some areas where cases are increasing and most importantly, the infection is spreading to remote areas.
In a recent video conferencing with district officials and CDMOs, the health authorities have warned not to be complacent in view of the declining infection rate. They have been asked to maintain the 70,000 testing target throughout the month.
“The State has a sizeable share of the Delta variant, which is driving the fatalities. It will take nearly a fortnight more for the Omicron variant to completely replace Delta. Schools are reopening and the panchayat elections will be held this month. We are anticipating the cases to rise further for a brief period from next month,” said a senior health official.
Of the 84 samples from 15 districts sequenced at the Institute of Life Sciences (ILS) on Friday, Omicron sub-types have been detected in 64 samples accounting for 76 per cent (pc). While 86 pc samples have been found with BA.2 subtype, only 14 pc were with BA.1 and B.1.1.529.
However, the surveillance through OmiSure RT-PCR kits revealed the share of Omicron variant is around 40 pc of the samples from across the State. So far 55,910 swab samples have been tested with the kits and 2,213 tested positive for Covid-19.
The declining trend continued as the State reported 2,603 new cases in last 24 hours. There is no let up in fatalities as 22 more succumbed to the disease pushing the toll to 8,711.
Three Covid deaths each have been reported from Cuttack and Sundargarh, two deaths from Keonjhar and one each from Balasore, Nayagarh, Boudh, Sonepur and Nabarangpur.
Khurda district accounted for the highest 444 cases, followed by Cuttack (205), Sundargarh (204), Jajpur (133) and Mayurbhanj (104) taking the cumulative positive tally to 12.64 lakh. The active cases stood at 21,589 after recovery of 5,376 patients.
Director of Health Services Dr Bijay Mohapatra said cases and deaths have been lower this time than the second wave. “Covid management strategies still need to be implemented because overall we are seeing a high number of cases,” he added.