Odisha reports 48 more COVID-19 cases, total rises to 876

Forty-eight migrant workers who recently returned from other states and a jail inmate in Puri tested positive for coronavirus in Odisha on Monday, taking the number of cases to 876, officials said.

After the prisoner tested positive for the disease, police personnel of the Kumbharpada police station, where the accused was brought after being arrested in a snatching case last Friday, have been kept in a lodge and their swab samples collected.

"The Puri jail inmate was already kept in isolation. Hence, there is no need to panic," Director General (Prison) S K Upadhay told PTI.

Sixteen of the new cases were from Jajpur, followed by 15 in Ganjam, four in Puri, three each in Kendrapara and Nayagarh, two each in Bolangir and Kandhamal and one each in Boudh, Cuttack and Khordha districts, the official said.

Kandhamal district reported coronavirus cases for the first time, taking the number of affected districts in the state to 23, the officials said.

Chief Secretary A K Tripathy said of the total 876 COVID-19 patients, 754 were detected from quarantine centres, while 122 had contacts with infected persons.

He claimed that there was no COVID-19 scare in the state and Odisha has 0.46 per cent fatality rate as compared to the national average of 3.15 per cent.

He said the situation in the state is much better. "While the national average is 71.27 cases per million, the state has so far reported 19.04 cases per million," he said.

The number of active cases in the state stands at 595 and fatalities at four.

Tripathy also expressed satisfaction over the recovery of 48 patients in Bhubaneswar, making the state capital coronavirus free at present.

A total of 4,543 samples were tested in Odisha on Sunday, taking the total number of COVID-19 tests in the state to 95,766, health officials said.

I&PR secretary Sanjay Singh said steps are being taken to ramp up COVID-19 testing facilities in the state. Bhima Bhoi Medical College & Hospital, Bolangir has got the approval of AIIMS, Bhubaneswar for COVID-19 testing.

Ganjam tops the COVID-19 tally in the state with 307 cases, followed by Jajpur (137), Balasore (119), Bhadrak (74), Khordha (60), Kendrapara (30), Puri (29), Sundargarh (27), Cuttack (23), Angul (15) Mayurbhanj (11) Nayagarh (9) Keonjhar (8) and Bolangir (6), the officials said.

Five cases each were reported in Jagatsinghpur and Boudh, two each in Kalahandi, Kandhamal, Jharsuguda and Deogarh and one each in Sambalpur, Koraput and Dhenkanal district, the officials added.