Odisha's Covid-19 tally breaches 800,000 mark, 40 fresh fatalities recorded

Odisha's COVID-19 tally on Saturday breached the eight-lakh mark after 7,395 more people tested positive for the infection, while 40 fresh fatalities pushed the toll to 2,952, a health department official said.

The coastal state's caseload has now risen to 8,06,094, the official said.

Of the 7,395 cases, 4,169 were recorded in quarantine centres, and the rest detected during contact tracing.

Accordingly, the number of active cases climbed to 78,687, the health department official said.

As many as 7,24,402 patients have recovered from the highly infectious disease, including 11,347 on Friday.

Khurda district, of which the state capital Bhubaneswar is a part, reported the maximum number of new cases at 1,069, followed by Cuttack at 868, Jajpur at 561 and Angul at 443.

At least nine of the state's 30 districts reported less than 100 cases each -- Bolabgir (81), Nuapada (22), Sonepur (91), Deogarh (57), Dhenkanal (81), Gajapati (52), Ganjam (69), Jharsuguda (66) and Kandhamal (76).

The number of red zones -- having more than 1,000 active cases each -- has fallen to 13 from 25 in May.

Taking to Twitter, the health department said, "Regret to inform about the demise of forty Covid positive patients while under treatment in hospitals."

Six deaths were reported from Khurda, four each from Cuttack, Mayurbhanj and Sundergarh, three each from Angul, Boudh, Jharsuguda and Kalahandi, and two each from Bolangir, Bargarh and Deogarh.

One patient each succumbed to the infection in Ganjam, Kandhamal, Naygarh and Sambalpur.

This apart, 53 other COVID-19 patients in the state have died due to comorbidities, the official said.

Odisha's positivity rate stands at 6.66 per cent.

Over 1.21 crore samples have been tested for COVID-19 thus far, including 70,313 on Friday.