7 test positive for COVID-19 in Odisha, total mounts to 125

Seven people, including six with recent travel history to West Bengal, tested positive for COVID-19 in Odisha on Wednesday, taking the total number of cases in the state to 125, officials said.

Of the new cases, three were reported from Balasore district and one each from Bhubaneswar in Khurda district, Keonjhar, Deogarh and Jharsuguda, they said.

In Balasore, three men tested positive for COVID-19 upon their return from Kolkata. Though all of them were asymptomatic, their samples were tested in view of their travel history and placed in quarantine.

The number of COVID-19 cases in Balasore increased to 19 with these three patients.

Earlier in the day, the respiratory disease was detected in a 77-year-old man from Bhubaneswar. This was the first COVID-19 case reported in the state capital after a gap of 14 days. The previous case reported in the city was on April 14.

The man from Madhusudan Nagar area of the city got infected after coming in contact with a relative who had tested positive for the deadly virus some days ago.

He had tested negative for COVID-19 on April 9. Another test was conducted on Tuesday night which was positive, NHM director Shalini Pandit said.

The total number of COVID-19 cases reported in Bhubaneswar now stands at 47, of which 27 have recovered.

This apart, one new case each was reported from Keonjhar, Deogarh and Jharsuguda districts, the Information and Public Relations department said, adding these patients had also recently returned from West Bengal.

With Keonjhar, Deogarh and Jharsuguda having registered coronavirus cases for the first time, the respiratory infection has spread to 14 of the 30 districts in the state.

A 60-year-old man from Panchapalli became the first COVID-19 patient in Keonjhar district. A 34-year-old man of Basudevpur area of Deogarh district is the first confirmed coronavirus case in the district, while the first COVID-19 patient in Jharsuguda is an 18-year-old woman from Brajrajnagar, an official said.

With this, the number of COVID-19 cases in Odisha rose to 125. Of them, 85 are undergoing treatment, 39 have recovered and one dead. The fresh recovered man hailed from Bhubaneswar.

As many as 2,421 COVID-19 tests were conducted in the state on Tuesday, while a total of 29,108 samples have been tested till date, sources said.

Of the 125 COVID-19 cases reported in Odisha so far, 47 are from Bhubaneswar, 19 each from Bhadrak, Jajpur and Balasore, 10 from Sundergarh, two each from Kendrapara and Kalahandi, and one each from Cuttack, Puri, Dhenkanal, Koraput, Jharsuguda, Deogarh and Keonjhar districts.

Contact tracing and follow-up action are being done after the fresh cases were detected, officials said.