New Covid cases cross 300 mark in Odisha

BHUBANESWAR: With the state recording 308 infections in the last 24 hours, new Covid cases crossed the 300 mark in Odisha after eight months. It is the highest single-day spike after August 30. Of the new cases detected from 5,931 samples, around 20 per cent were children and adolescents below 18 years and 90 per cent local contact cases. With over 300 cases a day, Odisha is one of the 10 states that is fuelling the country’s Covid tally. The state also recorded one death taking the toll to three in the last one week. The deceased, a 70-year-old man from Subarnapur district, who succumbed while undergoing treatment, was suffering from diabetes mellitus, hypertension and a cerebrovascular accident.

Since all three deceased had comorbidities and two among them were aged above 60 years, the Health and Family Welfare Department has appealed people with comorbid conditions and senior citizens to remain alert and practice Covid appropriate behaviour even if they are fully vaccinated with precaution dose. Health department sources said Sundargarh, Nabarangpur, Sambalpur and Cuttack accounted for nearly 60 per cent of the caseload. The daily test positivity rate rose to 5.19 per cent following the uptick in cases in last few days.

However, high weekly positivity rate in Sundargarh, Subarnapur, Sambalpur, Nabarangpur, Nuapada, Balangir and Bargarh has emerged as a cause of concern as the districts despite repeated reminders have been conducting less number of tests. As per the data shared by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Sundargarh had the highest weekly TPR of 13.68 per cent, followed by 12.2 per cent in Subarnapur, 10.47 per cent in Sambalpur, 8.86 per cent in Nuapada, 8.77 per cent in Balangir, 5.8 per cent in Nabarangpur and 5.09 per cent in Bargarh.

The state government has asked all districts to intensify contact tracing and testing to curb the infection. Meanwhile, after the recovery of 97 patients, the active cases stood at 1,505.  As the Omicron sub-variant XBB.1.16 strain is on the verge of devastating the country where cases have soared 13-fold in the last month, the sequencing has slowed down in Odisha due to lack of sufficient samples with required CT value.

Genome sequencing labs said they are not getting adequate samples for sequencing which could give an idea of the virus variant that is behind the surge in the state. In fact, one case of the recombinant coronavirus variant XBB.1.16 was reported as early as in January in the state.

Virus concern

 Of the cases detected from 5,931 samples, around 20 pc were children and adolescents
 Odisha is one of the 10 states  fuelling the country’s Covid tally
 The state also recorded one death