COVID-19 death toll in Odisha rises to 9, total cases 2,856

The COVID-19 fatalities in Odisha mounted to nine with a 55-year-old man succumbing to the highly infectious virus on Sunday, a health department official said. Seventy five more people from 16 districts tested positive for the virus during the last 24 hours, pushing the tally in the state to 2,856, of which 951 are active cases. A total of 178 patients have recovered on Sunday.

The deceased was suffering from tuberculosis and other comorbidities, said Ganjam district collector V A Kulange. "A 55-year-old male patient of Ganjam district, who tested positive for COVID-19, has passed away, while under treatment in hospital," the department said in a statement.

The nine COVID-19 fatalities were reported from three districts of Ganjam (4), Khurda (4) and Cuttack (1). Of the 75 new cases, 72 were detected from quarantine centres where the people returning from different states are lodged for preliminary medical observation. Three others tested positive from among the local people, the official said.

The new cases were reported from the districts of Khurda and Sundergarh (18 each), Jajpur (7), Bolangir and Cuttack (5 each), Nayagarh (4), Sonepur and Kendrapara (3 each), Jagatsinghpur, Koraput, Dhenkanal and Angul (2 each) and Ganjam, Puri, Nuapada and Keonjhar (1 each). From among 18 new cases in Sundergarh district, two were doctors of Rourkela Government Hospital and six inmates of the special jail at Rourkela, Sundergarh district collector, Nikhil Pawan Kalyan said.

Similarly, Sunday also witnessed an all-time high recovery of 178 COVID-19 patients taking the total number of people cured of the disease to 1,894 in the state, the official said. Of those who have recovered, 39 are from Khurda, 23 from Gajapati, 22 from Nuapada, 17 from Bhadrak, 15 from Nayagarh, 14 from Ganjam, 10 from Kendrapara, 9 each from Dhenkanal and Kandhamal, 6 from Sundergarh, 4 from Balasore, 2 each from Cuttack, Balangir, and Malkangiri, and 1 each from Jagatsinghpur, Jharsuguda, Nabarangpur, and Puri, the official said.

Of the 30 districts, Malkangiri and Nabarangpur now have no active COVID-19 cases while Ganjam has highest 184 patients followed by 106 in Khurda district. The state has so far conducted 1,76,098 corona tests including 3,477 samples which were tested on Saturday, the official said, adding that as many as 1,299 people are in hospital isolation till Sunday evening.

The districts that have reported more than 100 cases are Ganjam (598), Jajpur (319), Khurda (244), Balasore (190), Cuttack (172), Kendrapara (166), Bhadrak (140), Bolangir (121) and Puri (101)..