Odisha logs 1,096 new Covid-19 cases, 64 more fatalities in last 24 hours

Odisha on Saturday reported 1,096 new COVID-19 infections, pushing the tally to 9,85,827, while the toll climbed to 6,366 with 64 more fatalities, a health department official said.

Of the 1,096 new cases, 637 were recorded in quarantine centres, and the rest detected during contact tracing, the official said.

Khurda district, of which state capital Bhubaneswar is a part, registered 389 cases, Cuttack at 92 and Balasore at 77.

Boudh and Nabarangpur districts did not report any new case.

Khurda also logged 27 fresh deaths, followed by Cuttack at 17.

Four fatalities each were recorded in Balasore and Keonjhar, three in Mayurbhanj, and one each in Angul, Bhadrak, Boudh, Deogarh, Dhenkanal, Ganjam, Kendrapara, Nayagarh and Puri.

According to the health department, the list of fatalities does not reflect deaths that have occurred on a particular day. It gives details of past deaths for which the audit process has been duly completed and the cause identified as COVID-19.

As many as 9,66,928 people, including 1,558 on Friday, have recovered from the highly infectious disease.

Odisha currently has 12,480 active cases.

The positivity rate stands at 5.97 while the test positivity rate at 1.64 per cent.

Over 1.64 crore sample tests have been conducted so far, including 66,770 on Friday.

The state has thus far inoculated as many as 1,76,70,656 people with COVID-19 vaccines, of which 41,10,214 have received both the doses.

Meanwhile, the Odisha government has successfully set up the much-needed Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) facility at SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack, bringing relief to critically ill COVID-19 patients, who were earlier airlifted to Kolkata, Hyderabad or Chennai.

The facility will be operational from August 15, said CBK Mohanty, the chief of Directorate of Medical Education and Training (DMET).

Nine ECMO machines have been installed at the facility, and adequate employees appointed to handle the supportive treatment, he added.