Five new COVID-19 cases in Odisha, total rises to 162

Five more persons, including two returnees each from Surat and Kolkata, tested positive for COVID-19 in Odisha on Sunday, taking the total number of such cases in the state to 162, officials said.

The five fresh cases were reported from Ganjam (two), Jharsuguda (one), Balasore (one) and Keonjhar (one) districts, the Information and Public Relations department said.

The latest COVID-19 case was reported from Hatadihi in Keonjhar district of a 30-year-old man, who had recently returned from Kolkata and was asymptomatic of the disease. He was kept in quarantine in view of his travel history, an official said, adding that the mineral-rich Keonjhar district now has two coronavirus patients.

Similarly, a 34-year-old man from Balasore district with a travel history to Kolkata also tested positive for COVID-19. With this, the total number of coronavirus patients in Balasore increased to 21.

Ganjam district, which had so far been a green zone, reported its first COVID-19 cases after two migrant workers (males aged 17 and 22 years), who returned from Gujarat recently, were diagnosed with the disease.

With Ganjam, the home district of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, registering two cases, the number of districts under the grip of COVID-19 increased to 16 in the state. Odisha has a total of 30 districts.

A 40-year-old woman from Jharsuguda district also tested positive for the disease. She contracted the infection after coming in contact with a COVID-19 patient. With this, the total number of coronavirus cases in the industrial district of Jharsuguda has increased to two.

Contact-tracing and follow-up action relating to all the fresh cases have been initiated.

A total of 2,065 samples were tested for COVID-19 on Saturday, an official in the Health and Family Welfare department said. So far, Odisha has examined a total of 38,658 samples.

The number of active cases in the state stands at 105 as 56 people have recovered. One person from Bhubaneswar succumbed to the disease on April 6.

Jajpur district has reported the highest number of 48 novel coronavirus cases in the state, followed by Bhubaneswar (47), Balasore (21), Bhadrak (19) and Sundergarh (10).

Two COVID-19 cases each have been detected in Ganjam, Jharsuguda, Kendrapara, Bolangir, Keonjhar and Kalahandi and one case each has been reported from Cuttack, Puri, Dhenkanal, Deogarh and Koraput districts.