BHUBANESWAR: The new COVID-19 cases dropped in the State for the second consecutive day and the infections came down below 10,000-mark after eight days. As many as 9,833 fresh cases were reported from the State in the last 24 hours taking the tally to 11,87,295. The cases dropped from 11,607 on January 18 to 10,368 the next day.
The infection count in the hotspot districts has also declined from 4,347 to 2,946 in Khurda, 1,505 to 1,134 in Sundargarh, 940 to 774 in Cuttack, 247 to 206 in Sambalpur, 290 to 256 in Jajpur and 305 to 286 in Balasore.
In some districts, cases rose significantly as the infection spread to remote areas. Nayagarh recorded 192 cases, up from 149 a day back and Mayurbhanj reported 295 cases, up by 130 cases in the last 24 hours. Overall, cases declined despite the testing of samples remaining at the same range of around 75,000 for the last two days bringing down the test positivity rate to 13.2 per cent (pc) from 16.7 pc.
Among the fresh cases, 972 were of 0-18 age group as against 1,090 cases the previous day. The active cases stood at 79,312 after recovery of 10,390 patients. Six persons, aged 50 to 72 years, succumbed to the virus pushing the death toll to 8,507. Two were from Cuttack and one each from Angul, Dhenkanal, Jagatsinghpur and Puri.
Director of Health Services Dr Bijay Mohapatra said the mortality rate is as high as 90 per cent among the patients on ventilators and the risk of death is more in the case of comorbid patients, he said. However, the health authorities said with the downward trend in COVID-19 cases, it is difficult to predict that the cases would continue to drop irrespective of testing.
"The infection is spreading fast. The numbers are down because people may not be coming forward for tests as the severity is less this time. Even if the regression is less, we are on the downtrend. We have to wait at least two weeks to understand the state we are heading to. Now we can not say whether we have reached the peak," he added.