Odisha revises COVID-19 death toll from 5 to 4

The Odisha government on Sunday revised the COVID-19 death toll in the state from five to four, saying one person who died the previous day tested negative to the highly infectious virus.

The state reported 91 new cases taking the total number of COVID-19 cases to 828. As many as 24 people have recovered from the disease, an official in the health and family welfare department said.

The department, in its official website, earlier in the day mentioned, Very sorry to inform that 2 Covid patient in Ganjam passed away. It, however, revised the death figure later.

The second death from Ganjam district on Saturday was a suspected COVID-19 case. The test report received now is negative, the department said in its latest Twitter post.

Hence, the total number of coronavirus deaths of Odisha stands at four, the health department tweeted.

The first two COVID-19 death cases were reported from Bhubaneswar and the third case had come from Ganjam.

Now, according to the revised statement, the fourth Case had also come from Ganjam.

This is the second instance when the state government has refused to recognise the death as a COVID-19 fatality.

Earlier on April 21, the health department had refused to recognise the death of a 70-year-old man from West Bengal as a case of COVID-19 fatality in Odisha.

The government had claimed that the man had recovered from COVID-19 and cause of his death was cancer. The man from Midnapore in West Bengal was brought to Bhubaneswar in an ambulance and admitted to a private hospital where he tested positive for novel coronavirus in April.

Since the man had recovered from the highly infectious disease by testing negative twice, his demise will not be considered as COVID-19 death, state government's COVID-19 spokesperson Subroto Bagchi had told reporters.

Meanwhile, the state reported 91 fresh COVID-19 cases. Of the 91 cases, 87 were from quarantine centres and four others comprised one contact case, a sarpanch and two others.

Sources said the sarpanch (village head) was the person who was looking after the temporary medical centre where returnees from other states are quarantined.

The new cases were reported from Bhadrak (28), followed by Balasore-17, Ganjam -15, Cuttack-12, Puri-7, Keonjhar-4, Khurda-3, Bolangir-2 and one each from Kendrapara, Sundergarg and Sambalpur.

With Sambalpur reporting its first case, the number of districts so far reported for COVID-19 cases increased to 22 out of the total 30 districts.

As many as 24 persons recovered from the disease on the day taking the total number of cured cases to 220. While 19 people from Ganjam got cured of COVID-19, three persons belonged to Jajpur and two other from Balasore.

As many as 5,083 samples were examined for COVID-19 on Saturday. The total number of samples tested so far in Odisha stands at 91,223.

Meanwhile, the department said IISER, Berhampur has been accorded necessary approval by AIIMS, Bhubaneswar for conducting COVID-19 testing. Of the state's total 828 positive cases, 604 cases are active, while 220 people have recovered and four are dead.

The highest 292 cases are from Ganjam district, followed by 121 in Jajpur, 119 from Balasore, 74 from Bhadrak, 59 from Khurda, 27 each from Sundergarh and Kendrapara, 35 from Puri, 22 from Cuttack, 15 from Angul, 11 from Mayurbhanj, eight from Keonjhar, six from Nayagarh, five from Jagatsinhpur, four each from Boudh and Bolangir, two each from Kalahandi, Jharsuguda and Deogarh, and one each from Sambalpur, Koraput and Dhenkanal.