BHUBANESWAR: After a dip in the number of infections for last two days, Odisha logged 377 new cases, up by 40 per cent, on Wednesday taking the active cases close to 2,000. The tally is the highest in the last eight months. Of the fresh cases spread across 20 districts, around 22 per cent are aged below 18 years and 95 per cent are local contacts.
The state had recorded 269 cases on Tuesday and 268 cases on Monday. Health department sources said the new cases soared after several districts stepped up testing. The number of tests rose to 6,761 from 4,629 a couple of days back. The daily test positivity rate (TPR) also went up to 5.58 per cent.
The weekly TPR, however, continued to remain above 10 per cent in three districts. As per the statistics released by the Ministry of Health, Subarnapur recorded the highest TPR of 15.5 per cent, followed by 14.26 per cent in Sundargarh and 12.67 per cent in Sambalpur during April 10 to 16 period. The TPR was more than the state’s weekly average of 4.75 per cent in four other districts. It was 9.64 per cent in Nuapada, 8.89 per cent in Balangir, 5.84 per cent in Nabarangpur and 5.58 per cent in Bargarh.
Sundargarh, Sambalpur, Nabarangpur, Cuttack, Nuapada and Khurda accounted for more than 75 per cent of the fresh cases. These are the districts with the maximum number of active cases in the state now. Odisha is among the top 10 states that have been contributing maximum number of new infections and fueling the country’s Covid tally. It is also the 10th state in terms of active cases.
Health officials urged people to follow Covid appropriate behaviour alerting that the cases may rise further. There is no reason to panic as case severity is very less during this phase. But people need to remain alert and mask up while going out. Since the fatality has been reported among elderly people with comorbidities, they should be extra cautious, said director of health services Dr Bijay Mohapatra.