73 more test positive for COVID-19 in Odisha; 15 recover

At least 73 people tested positive for COVID-19 in Odisha on Thursday, raising the total count in the state to 611, a health department official said.

The number of recoveries in the state rose to 158, with 15 more patients, all from Jajpur district, having defeated the deadly disease, the official said.

With this, the number of active cases in Odisha now stands at 450. Three persons have died of the infection so far.

Of the 73 fresh cases, 71 had been living in quarantine centres following their return from Gujarat, West Bengal and Karnataka.

Ganjam district accounted for 42 patients, followed by Jajpur at 17, Bhadrak at nine, Khurda at three and Sundergarh at two, the Information and Public Relations Department said.

A total of 4,394 samples were examined on Wednesday, taking the total number of COVID-19 tests conducted in Odisha so far to 77,150, the health department official said.

With the return of migrant workers in hordes, mostly from the industrial city of Surat in Gujarat, the number of cases in different districts of Odisha has soared over the past two weeks.

Ganjam tops the list with 252 cases, followed by Balasore at 90, Jajpur at 88, Khurda at 53, Bhadrak at 40, Sundergarh at 25 and Angul at 15. Nine cases each have been reported from Mayurbhanj and Kendrapara districts, five in Jagatsinghpur, and four each in Keonjhar, Puri and Boudh districts.

Three in Cuttack have tested positive for the disease, two each in Kalahandi, Jharsuguda and Bolangir districts and one each in Nayagarh, Koraput, Dhenkanal and Deogarh.

The maximum number of recoveries has been witnessed in state capital Bhubaneswar, with 45 of the 50 COVID-19 patients having been discharged from the hospital.

Bhubaneswar currently has three active cases. Two persons from the state capital had succumbed to the disease.

Ganjam, which has reported a total of 252 cases, has the maximum number of active cases at 249. One person has died in the district.

Of the 30 districts in the state, COVID-19 cases have been reported from 21. Nine have not registered any case so far.