Odisha records 1,437 fresh Covid-19 cases, reports 64 fatalities

Odisha's COVID-19 caseload on Sunday surged to 9,78,705 after 1,437 more people tested positive for the infection while 64 fresh fatalities took the coastal state's toll to 5,966, a health department official said.

Of the 1,437 cases, 832 were from quarantine centres and the rest detected during contact tracing.

Khurda district, which encompasses state capital Bhubaneswar, reported 409 new cases, followed by Cuttack at 190 and Puri at 146.

According to the official, eight deaths each were recorded in Bhadrak, Cuttack and Khurda districts, seven each in Puri and Sundargarh, four in kendrapara, three each in Dhenkanal and Nayagarh.

The health department clarified that 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".

The department also notified that 53 COVID-19 patients in the state have died due to comorbidities.

Odisha currently has 15,858 active cases, while as many as 9,56,828 patients, including 1,899 on Saturday, have recovered from the highly infectious disease, the official said.

The positivity rate in the coastal state stands at 6.07 per cent, he said.

Over 1.60 crore sample tests have been conducted thus far, including 74,735 on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the state government revised its vaccination policy and set a target to administer at least 3.5 lakh doses every day.

All districts have been given specific goals to achieve so that the overall inoculation figure increases substantially.

Odisha has successfully administered 1.64 crore doses since the vaccination drive began in January, additional chief secretary, health department, P K Mohapatra, said.

As many as 1.25 crore (40.61%) vaccines have been administered as the first dose and 39.11 lakh (12.65%) jabs as second dose, he said in a letter to district collectors.

Vaccine supply from the Centre improved in July and the trend is expected to continue in August, depending on the consumption and wastage rates, he pointed out.

Mohapatra asked the district authorities to prioritise the administration of second dose.

The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation on Saturday said that it has achieved 100 per cent vaccination.

The civic body, which listed 9.7 lakh beneficiaries, has administered 18.35 lakh doses in all, BMC additional commissioner Laxmikant Sethy stated.

The BMC has covered a wide range of beneficiaries including those from rural areas. A huge number of outsiders keep coming to the city regularly. No one has been ignored, he added.