7 more test COVID-19 positive in Odisha; total cases rise to 149

Seven more people, including two with a travel history to Tamil Nadu, tested positive for COVID-19 in Odisha on Friday, taking the total number of cases in the state to 149, officials said.

Of the fresh cases, four were reported from Jajpur district, two from Bolangir and one from Balasore.

The state now has 93 active cases. Fifty-five patients have recovered and one has died of the disease.

Bolangir district in the western part of state has reported the coronavirus infection for the first time and the two patients, aged between 18 and 22 year, had a travel history to Tamil Nadu, a senior official said.

Jajpur district has emerged as a new trouble area for Odisha, reporting four more cases on Friday. The district has so far reported 21 positive cases in the last 24 hours, of them Katikata gram panchayat under Dasarathpur block alone reported 17 patients.

One person with a travel history to Kolkata tested positive for coronavirus in Balasore district.

The state health and family welfare department said 16 COVID-19 patients recovered in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of cured persons to 55.

Of the total 149 COVID-19 cases, Bhubaneswar tops the list with 47, followed by 40 in Jajpur, Balasore (20), Bhadrak (19), Sundergarh (10), Kendrapara, Kalahandi and Bolangir districts two each and Cuttack, Puri, Dhenkanal, Jharsuguda, Deogarh, Keonjhar and Koraput districts detecting one case each.

Now, 15 of Odisha's 30 districts are affected with coronavius.

As more than 90 per cent of cases in Balasore, Jajpur and Bhadrak districts have been linked to West Bengal, the health department appealed to people to not hide their travel history.

Those who have returned from West Bengal recently must come forward for COVID-19 testing, it said.

"They may seem healthy but they could be infected and spread infection," the department said, adding that such people are advised to contact local BDOs, tehsildars, sarpanchs and remain in isolation at home.

The department said COVID-19 testing is free.

A total of 2,437 samples were tested for COVID-19 on Thursday. Altogether 34,133 samples have been tested in the state since the outbreak of the disease.