Covid-19 pandemic: Odisha logs 9,833 new cases and six more deaths

Odisha on Friday reported a slight dip in fresh COVID-19 cases, as 9,833 more people tested positive for the disease, raising the tally to 11,87,295, a health department bulletin said.

The death toll mounted to 8,507 with six new fatalities, it said.

The state had on Thursday logged 10,368 single-day infections and seven deaths.

It recorded less than 10,000 fresh cases for the first time in nine days.

At least 972 children were among the new patients, the bulletin said.

The test positivity rate (TPR) stood at 13.21 per cent as the fresh infections were detected from 74,443 sample tests conducted in the last 24 hours.

Khurda district, where state capital Bhubaneswar is situated, registered more than a quarter of the new cases with 2,946 infections, followed by 1,134 in Sundargarh and 774 in Cuttack.

Of the six fresh COVID fatalities, two were reported from Cuttack and one each from Dhenkanal, Angul, Puri and Jagatsinghpur.

Fifty-three other COVID-19 patients have died due to comorbidities so far, the bulletin said.

At least 8,471 patients recuperated from the disease on Thursday, taking the total number of recoveries to 10,89,033.

Odisha now has 89,702 active cases, including 32,487 in Khurda and 10,796 in Sundargarh. The two districts along with Rayagada, Cuttack, Balasore and Sambalpur are in the red zone.

A district with over 2,500 active cases is included in the red category.

Puri, Mayurbhanj and Jajpur are among the 12 districts which are in the yellow zone with over 1,000 patients each.

The daily TPR is at 25.9 per cent in Khurda, 25.1 in Sundargarh and 18.4 in Rayagada.

Seventeen more districts have reported the ratio of over 7.5 per cent, according to the bulletin.

Khurda has a weekly TPR of 33.5 per cent between January 14 and 20, followed by 28.1 in Balasore and 25.5 in Sundargarh.

Health Services Director Bijay Mohapatra said the declining curve of the contagion is to be monitored for a few more days.

The health department appealed to COVID-19 patients, who have mild symptoms or remained asymptomatic in home isolation, to avoid self-medication.

They have also been asked not to consume steroids.