BHUBANESWAR: The daily Covid tally in Odisha breached the 500-mark for the first time this year with the state reporting 502 cases in the last 24 hours taking the active caseload close to 3,000. This is the highest single-day spike since mid-August last year.
Health department sources said the fresh cases spread across 24 districts were detected from 6,616 samples. Five districts - Sundargarh, Cuttack, Nabarangpur, Balangir and Mayurbhanj accounted for more than 70 per cent of the caseload.
With this, the daily test positivity rate (TPR) rose to 7.5 per cent from around 6.1 per cent a couple of days back. The weekly TPR has shot above 45 per cent in Sambalpur. The western district has the highest TPR of 48 per cent, followed by 25 per cent in Subarnapur, 21 per cent in Sundargarh, 14.1 per cent in Kalahandi and 13.94 per cent in Nuapada.
With a number of patients having Covid symptoms reporting at various hospitals in the state, the Health officials have advised districts to ensure Covid tests of all symptomatic patients coming to hospitals.
Officials of districts bordering Chhattisgarh have also been asked to keep track on people coming from the neighbouring state and test them for Covid-19 if they show symptoms. Meanwhile, after the recovery of 273 patients, the active cases stood at 2926. Around 1.3 per cent of patients have been hospitalised.