Odisha's COVID-19 caseload crosses 17,000-mark; death toll mounts to 91

Odisha's COVID-19 death toll rose to 91 with five more patients succumbing to the disease, while the state's caseload crossed the 17,000-mark on Sunday as 736 more people tested positive for the virus, a health department official said.

Odisha's COVID-19 death toll rose to 91 with five more patients succumbing to the disease, while the state's caseload crossed the 17,000-mark on Sunday as 736 more people tested positive for the virus, a health department official said. The 736 fresh cases reported from 25 districts have taken the state's COVID-19 tally to 17,437.

Odisha's recovery figure also crossed the 12,000-mark with 516 more patients being discharged from hospitals after getting cured. The total recovery number in the state has reached 12,453, which is 71.41 per cent, almost the same as on Saturday. The fatality rate, however, increased by 0.01 per cent to 0.52 per cent from 0.51 per cent, the official said.

Of the five fatalities reported on Sunday, three were from Ganjam, the worst-hit district in the state. Sundergarh and Jagatsinghpur reported a death each, he said. A 70-year-old woman and two men, aged 44 and 39 years, died due to the disease in Ganjam, while a 65-year-old woman from Sundergarh and a 67-year-old man from Jagatsinghpur also fell victim to COVID-19, the official said. Jagatsinghpur reported its first COVID-19 casualty.

Besides, two COVID-19 patients -- aged 53 and 83 years and hailing from Ganjam and Khurda districts respectively -- died due to other ailments, taking the number of such fatalities in Odisha to 28, the official said. Of the 736 new cases, 481 were reported from quarantine centres, while the remaining 255 are contacts of COVID-19 patients, he said, adding that the state had registered its highest single-day spike of 755 COVID-19 cases on July 10.

Ganjam reported the highest number of fresh COVID-19 cases at 247, followed by Khurda (107), Koraput (45), Jagatsinghpur and Jajpur (40 each), Gajapati (39), Balasore (33), Cuttack (27), Sambalpur (25) and Angul (22), he added. With new cases, fresh recoveries and fatalities, the number of active coronavirus cases in Odisha now is 4,865, while 12,453 people have recovered from the disease, the official said. He added that 3,86,102 samples have so far been tested for COVID-19 in the state.

Keeping in view the surge in positive cases in the state, the Odisha government on Sunday anticipated that as many as 50 more people are likely to die and another 10,000 additional people will get infected by July end if the present trend continues. "Going by the trend, the number of positive cases might reach 25,000 to 30,000, and 50 more people may die by the end of July," Dr Jayant Panda, the technical advisor to Odisha government's Health and Family Welfare department, said.

He, however, said the government has been focussing on the tracing, testing and treatment of patients instead of getting worried over the surge of positive cases. "There is no such community transmission of the disease," Dr Panda said, adding that plasma therapy has come as a major relief for the critically ill patients.

Of the six critical patients who are now under plasma therapy, four have responded very well and will soon be discharged, an official statement released by the chief minister's office said, adding that other two patients are in stable condition. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik thanked the personnel of the NDRF and the Fire Service who have come forward to donate plasma after their recovery from the highly infectious disease.

As many as 295 personnel of the NDRF, the ODRAF, and the Fire Service were found COVID-19 positive after their return to the state from cyclone Amphan restoration duty from West Bengal in May. Keeping in view the surge in positive cases, the Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) has adopted a door-to-door surveillance strategy in both slum and non-slum areas to curb the spread of COVID-19 during the 14-day lockdown imposed till July 31.

"We are now creating two lists of SARI & ILI cases in slum and non-slum areas. We are planning to intensify this further during the lockdown, and start antigen testing from tomorrow in the affected clusters," said CMC commissioner Ananya Das. As the state capital reported 52 new cases, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) launched a massive COVID-19 awareness activity. Vendors at different haats were scanned by thermal scanner and volunteers sensitized the people to follow face mask wearing, social distancing, and hand hygiene norms to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, the district administration of Dhenkanal sealed five nursing homes after a pregnant woman under treatment was found positive to the virus. The six doctors, who had attended the woman and also visited the nursing homes, were asked to go on home quarantine along with 60 employees. While the 14-day lockdown has been imposed in four districts of Ganjam, Khurda, Cuttack, and Jajpur, along with Rourkela city till July 31 midnight, the district administrations of Gajapati and Bhadrak on Sunday announced lockdown in key areas of the districts from July 20 to July 31.

While Gajapati announced lockdown in Paralakhemundi municipality, Kashinagar NAC, and 11 gram panchayats in seven blocks, Bhadrak imposed restrictions in Bhadrak Municipality and Dhamnagar NAC areas. Meanwhile, 22 police personnel have rejoined duty after getting cured of COVID-19 in Ganjam and Berhampur police districts.