Single-day Covid-19 infection rate among children rises to over 20% in Odisha

The daily coronavirus infection rate among children and adolescents reached the all-time high of 20 per cent in Odisha on Monday as 122 of 609 fresh patients are below 18 years of age, a health department official said.

The single-day positivity ratio among people below 18 years of age was at 16.27 per cent on Sunday and 17.32 per cent on Saturday, he said. "The daily Covid infection rate among children and adolescents rose to 20.3 per cent, which is a matter of concern as they have not been inoculated," the official said.

However, the daily positivity ratio was at 0.93 per cent as the new cases were detected from 65,268 sample tests, he said. The fresh infections raised the Covid-19 tally in the coastal state to 10,12,167.

Of the new cases, 354 were reported from quarantine centres and 255 detected during contact tracing, he said. Khurda district, which comprises the state capital Bhubaneswar, registered the highest number of fresh cases at 188, followed by Cuttack (113). Boudh, Kalahandi, Kandhamal and Nuapada did not report any new case in the last 24 hours.

The death toll rose to 8,055 as eight more people succumbed to the infection, the official said. Of the fresh fatalities, three were reported from Khurda district, two each from Puri and Ganjam and one from Balasore, he said.

Fifty-three other Covid patients have died due to comorbidities. Odisha now has 6,996 active cases, and 763 people were cured of the disease on Sunday, taking the total number of recoveries to 9,97,063.

The state has so far conducted over 1.84 crore sample tests for Covid-19, and the overall positivity rate now stands at 5.47 per cent. More than 2.35 crore vaccine doses have been administered to eligible people, the official added.