No COVID-19 death in Odisha for second consecutive day

No COVID-19 death wasreported from Odisha for the second consecutive day, while 113new cases were detected, a Health Department official said onThursday.

Of the new cases, 67 were reported from differentquarantine centres, he said.

Sambalpur recorded the highest number of 18 new cases,followed by Sundargarh (17) and Nuapada (11).

Eleven districts -- Boudh, Deogarh, Dhenkanal,Jagatsinghpur, Kandhamal, Keonjhar, Koraput, Malkangiri,Nayagarh, Nabarangpur and Subarnapur -- did not register anycases since Wednesday.

So far, the state reported 1,906 deaths, while3,34,780 COVID-19 cases were detected.

There are 1,286 active cases in the state at presentand 3,31,535 patients have recovered.

The state has so far tested 76.35 lakh samples forCOVID-19, including 23,174 on Wednesday.

Odisha's positivity rate now stands at 4.38 per cent.

The state government began the second spell of thefirst phase of inoculation across all 30 districts during theday.

So far, 1,78,227 healthcare workers have been giventhe COVID-19 vaccines, while the remaining 1,60,473 peoplewill get it by February 10, said Bijay Panigrahi, the directorof the Health and Family Welfare Department.

He urged all healthcare workers to get the vaccinesafter receiving a message.

Those who do not turn up for inoculation will not getvaccinated free of cost in the future, Panigrahi said.