Odisha's Covid-19 caseload jumps to 84,231, toll mounts to 428

Odisha's Covid-19 tally jumped to 84,231 on Tuesday with 2,752 fresh positive cases, while nine more fatalities pushed the toll to 428, a health department official said. The state also registered the highest single-day recovery of 2,546 patients taking the total number of cured persons to 59,470 which is 70.6 per cent, the official said.

The maximum number of 627 patients were discharged from hospitals in Khurda district followed by 266 from Ganjam, 143 from Nayagarh, 141 from Puri, 112 from Rayagada and 104 from Koraput. Other districts reported less than 100 recovery cases, he said.

Of the fresh fatalities, two each were reported from Ganjam and Sundargarh districts and one each from Balasore, Bolangir, Cuttack, Gajapati and Khurda. "Regret to inform the demise of Nine #COVID-19 positive patients while under treatment in hospitals," the Health and Family Welfare Department said on Twitter. Of the 428 deaths, Ganjam district alone accounted for 181 fatalities followed by Khura (55), the official said, adding that 53 more coronavirus patients in the state have died due to other ailments. Though there has been a surge in positive cases, the state registered a decline in the rate of fatalities which Tuesday was 0.50 per cent against 0.55 per cent on August 19, a data released by the said. Our objective is to further bring down the fatality rate to below 0.50 per cent, said P K Mohapatra, the additional chief secretary to the deaprtment of health and family welfare. The day saw 2,752 new positive cases. Of them 1,708 were recorded in quarantine centres and the remaining were detected positive during contact tracing. Khurda district, of which Bhubaneswar is a part, reported the maximum number of fresh cases at 247, followed by Jajpur 217 and Ganjam 212. With new positive cases, record highest single day recovery of patients and fresh fatalities, Odishas active cases now stands at 24,280, the official said. The state on Monday conducted 58,338 tests, taking the total number of such clinical examinations to 14,21,958, the official added.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said that with an objective of ramping up Covid-19 testing across the state, Odisha has tested nearly 2 lakh samples over the last 3 days. The increased rate of testing has brought down positivity rate and ensured that 'test, track, trace' goals are achieved, he said.

CORONAVIRUS SPECIAL COVERAGE ONLY ON DH

Meanwhile, the state government has re-fixed the maximum price of RT-PCR test at Rs 12,00 inclusive of GST and all other incidental charges by the ICMR approved private laboratories for private individuals desirous of testing their samples, a notification by the health and family welfare department said.

Khurda district has reported the highest number of new cases at 423 of which 332 Covid-19 positive persons were detected in Bhubaneswar.

The new cases in Bhubaneswar included a 50-year-old male from CRPF campus with travel history to Jammu and Kashmir and another 13 fresh cases from the 7th battalion of police.

So far the total positive cases in the state capital are 7,931 of which 3,162 are active ones and 34 have died of the disease so far.