BHUBANESWAR: Even as the new Covid-19 cases continued to be over 10,000 for the third consecutive day, the State government on Saturday advised asymptomatic people not to go for Covid tests and use unnecessary drugs. Director of Public Health Dr Niranjan Mishra said people having no symptoms do not require tests unless they are suffering from comorbid conditions.
“We have informed district administrations regarding the ICMR’s fresh guidelines on testing. Those without symptoms do not need to take a test. Tests are also not required for asymptomatic contacts of Covid patients. As people without symptoms are never prescribed any medication, they should not take unnecessary drugs and antibiotics,” he added.
The State reported 10,856 fresh cases from across districts and two deaths pushing the virus tally to 11.22 lakh and death toll to 8,478. As many as 32 more Omicron cases were also detected mostly from clusters taking it to 201.
The super mutant variant was found among 42 samples sequenced at the Institute of Life Sciences (ILS) here. While 15 cases were from the 18 samples collected from a cluster at VIMSAR, Burla, six were from nine samples from a cluster at National Institute of Science Education and Research, Bhubaneswar.
“The sequencing data revealed that most of the cluster containment in the State is now driven by the Omicron variant. As the virus is spreading rapidly, people have to adhere to Covid appropriate behaviour to be safe,” said a scientist at the ILS lab.
Of the new Covid cases, 1,021 are of the 0-18 years age group and 6,293 were in quarantine. The rest were local contact cases. Six districts led by Khurda accounted for 65 per cent of the caseload.
The maximum 3,087 cases were found in Khurda, followed by 1,943 in Sundargarh, 909 in Cuttack, 500 in Sambalpur, 376 in Mayurbhanj and 326 in Balasore. Twenty-one districts registered more than 100 cases each.
With 74,936 tests conducted in the last 24 hours, the test positivity rate (TPR) rose to 14.5 per cent (pc). The TPR soared to 30 pc in Sundargarh, 27.8 pc in Khurda, 18.2 pc in Sambalpur, 17.6 pc in Mayurbhanj and 13.8 in Cuttack. The active cases stood at 58,589 after recovery of 3,220 patients. Only two pc of the active cases have been hospitalised.