Odisha reports lowest number of Covid-19 cases in three months

Odisha reported 2,640 new cases on Tuesday

Odisha reported 2,640 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, its lowest in the last three months, a health official said.

Forty more people died in the state in the last 24 hours, taking the toll to 3,970, he said.

So far, the state has reported 9,06,429 COVID-19 cases.

The dip in the numbers may pave the way for relaxing the restrictions, which is in place at present till 5 am of July 1, the official said.

As the restrictions depend on the test positivity rate (TPR) at the district level, the curbs are likely to continue in Balasore, Cuttack, Khurda, Mayurbhanj and Puri where it is over 5 per cent, he said.

Balasore reported the highest TPR in the state at 11 per cent, followed by Cuttack (10.6 per cent), Mayurbhanj (8.7 per cent), Khurda (8.3 per cent) and Puri (7.9 per cent).

"These five districts are the cause of concern for the administration," he said.

Besides, Khurda has the highest number of active cases at 5,293, followed by Cuttack (3,921), Jajpur (2,692) and Balasore (2,988).

There is no difficulty in relaxing the restrictions in the districts that have less than 5 per cent TPR, said Director of Health Service Dr Bijay Mohapatra.

Of the new infections, 1,517 were detected at quarantine centres while the rest 1,123 were local contact cases.

Balasore district reported the highest 397 new cases. Khurda registered 365 cases and Cuttack 266.

Twenty-two of the state's 30 districts reported less than 100 new cases. The lowest was recorded at Deogarh where four persons tested positive.

Khurda district, where state capital Bhubaneswar is located, accounted for the highest number of deaths at seven.

There are 31,619 active cases in the state at present.

So far, 8,70,787 patients have recovered, including 3,385 on Monday.

The new cases were detected after testing 63,695 samples.