BHUBANESWAR: The dominance of Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 in the State notwithstanding, there has been no let up in fatalities as deaths continue to rise with over 400 people succumbing to the infection in the ongoing third wave.
Death toll rose to 24 in last 24 hours, the highest single day spike in the wave so far. At an average 20 patients a day, 302 people have succumbed to the disease in a fortnight pushing up the case fatality rate (CFR) to 1.5 per cent (pc).
Even as the fresh cases hover around 1,500 over the last week, fatalities have almost doubled. The daily CFR rose from 0.67 pc from January 1 to 1.5 pc now - a trend similar to the second wave led by the Delta variant.
The Health department had announced six deaths on January 19, the day the State had its third wave peak of 11,607 cases. The fatalities went up to 24 on February 12 from two on January 1 when the wave actually started. What has left the health experts perplexed is the strategy of the Odisha government to release the death figures late on the pretext of an audit like the second wave. When the fatality is coming down with the drop in cases in other states, it is just the reverse here.
“Odisha is a peculiar case as the deaths due to Covid are rising when the infections have dropped considerably. The delayed audit could be the reason, but what if the Health department reconciles all audited figures at one go? The State should be more transparent while dealing with a pandemic like Covid-19 that has killed lakhs across the country,” microbiologist Dr Tribhuban Mohan Mohapatra said.
Last year, the daily CFR had gone up to three per cent and the data analysts had to struggle to figure out the real time statistics, which are essential to decide on interventions for containment measures.
Sources said the State may add at least 100 more deaths, mostly from Cuttack and Bhubaneswar, in the coming days. While the latest genome sequencing data indicates that the Omicron variant has almost replaced Delta in Odisha with 98 pc samples testing positive, health experts are keen to know which variant is driving the deaths during this wave.
Director of Health Services Dr Bijay Mohapatra said though the study is on to ascertain the variant behind all these deaths, preliminary investigation revealed a significant number of people succumbed to Delta.