Odisha's COVID-19 death toll rises to 77, tally climbs to 14,898

He said two men from Ganjam district, aged 65 and 86 years, and a 72- year-old man from Bhubaneswar city died of the disease on Wednesday, pushing the toll to 77. Ganjam has reported 46 deaths, followed by 13 in Khurda, eight in Cuttack, two in Puri, and one each in Angul, Bargarh, Bhadrak, Gajapati, Jajpur, Kendrapara, Rayagada and Sundergarh, the official said.

Odisha's COVID-19 death toll rose to 77 with three more patients succumbing to the disease on Wednesday, while the caseload jumped to 14,898 as 618 more persons tested positive for the virus, a health department official said. The state's COVID-19 recovery tally crossed the 10,000-mark as 612 more patients were declared cured on Wednesday. With this, the recovery rate has reached 70.31 per cent and the fatalities rate is 0.51 per cent, the official said.

The number of active COVID-19 cases in the state is now 4,321, he said. He said two men from Ganjam district, aged 65 and 86 years, and a 72- year-old man from Bhubaneswar city died of the disease on Wednesday, pushing the toll to 77.

Ganjam has reported 46 deaths, followed by 13 in Khurda, eight in Cuttack, two in Puri, and one each in Angul, Bargarh, Bhadrak, Gajapati, Jajpur, Kendrapara, Rayagada and Sundergarh, the official said. "Two other coronavirus patients died due to non-COVID reasons," he said.

"A 72-year old man from Ganjam with traumatic brain injury and a 52-year-old man from Khurda district with coronary artery disease, who had tested positive for coronavirus, died due to non-COVID reasons," he said in a statement. The number of coronavirus patients who died of other complications increased to 24, he said.

Of the fresh cases, 411 were detected in quarantine centres across the state, while 207 were found through contact-tracing exercise, the official said. Ganjam reported the highest 286 new cases, followed by Khurda (107), Balasore (61), Jagatsinghpour (26), Mayurbhanj (21) and Cuttack (16).

Fifteen cases were detected each in Nayagarh and Sundergarh, 14 in Angul, 13 in Malkangiri and 10 in Sundergarh. Eleven other districts also reported fresh cases, but the numbers are in single digits, the official said. The Odisha government inaugurated a plasma bank to start plasma therapy on critical patients in three dedicated COVID hospitals in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik appealed to people who have recovered to come forward to voluntarily donate plasma. Odisha became the third state after Delhi and Maharashtra to start plasma therapy to treat critical COVID patients. As more cases are being detected in Odisha, the state government through a notification fixed price of Rs 450 for rapid antigen tests conducted by private laboratories.

The health department said each Standard Q COVID-19 Ag Kit as specified by the ICMR and used for the antigen test must be priced at maximum Rs 450 (plus GST as applicable). The private facilities must comply with the prevailing ICMR norms, a notification said. Keeping in view the requirement of trained health professionals to run COVID Care Homes (CCHs) set up in 6,798 gram panchayats across the state, Odisha government has decided to engage 7,000 trained manpower for the purpose, official sources said.

Meanwhile, the state has focused on Ganjam district which has so far reported as many as 4,621 positive cases and accounted for 46 fatalities. As many as 130 doctors and 52 administrative officers were rushed to Ganjam which is the worst-hit district. The district administration of Ganjam also declared complete shutdown in at least nine urban areas under Chhatarpur sub-division till July 21.

While an eight-day shutdown has already been imposed in Hinjili Municipality and Ganjam NAC from Tuesday, the six- day shutdown announced in other seven NAC-the district headquarter town from Thursday. "We have also decided to start door to door health screening in rural areas," Ganjam district collector V A Kulange said.

The state capital of Bhubaneswar recorded a huge spike of 90 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours taking the total count to 859. With this, the number of active cases of COVID-19 increased to 462 in Bhubaneswar.