Odisha reports 290 new Covid-19 cases in last 24 hours; tally at 340,194

Odisha's COVID-19 tally

mounted to 3,40,194 on Sunday as 290 more people, including 10 students of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) here, tested positive for the disease, an official said.

Of the new cases, 171 were reported from quarantine centres and 119 detected during contact tracing.

The coastal state recorded over 200 fresh cases for four consecutive days, starting from March 25.

It had reported 210 new cases on Saturday, while 234 more people were diagnosed with the disease on Friday and 214 on Thursday.

Khurda district, of which state capital Bhubaneswar is a part, reported the highest number of new cases at 71, followed by Nuapada (94) and Jharsuguda (21).

"Samples of 40 students of IIT, Bhubaneswar were tested through RT-PCR. Ten test results were found positive," Khurda District Magistrate-cum Collector Sanat Mishra said.

"Ten students, who had recently come to the institute for their works in laboratories, tested positive. All of them have been quarantined," IIT, Bhubaneswar Director RRV Rajkumar told PTI.

The institute has an isolation ward with 30 beds, he said, adding that students and staffers who have been quarantined are being provided food, medicines and other essential items.

The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation on Sunday sealed a coaching centre after its 20 students tested COVID-19 positive.

The Xavier Institute of Management (XIMB) here had recently reported over 24 coronavirus cases.

According to the official, the state is passing through a "critical situation" due to the detection of a new coronavirus strain.

The death toll remained at 1,920 as no new fatality due to the infection was reported in the last 24 hours.

Fifty-three other COVID-19 patients have also died due to comorbidities, he said.

Odisha now has 1,650 active cases, and 3,36,571 people have so far recovered from the disease.

The state has conducted over 89.75 lakh sample tests for COVID-19, including 25,496 on Saturday, and the positivity rate stands at 3.79 per cent.