Odisha alerts districts on possible spike of COVID-19 cases,

Apprehending a possiblespike in COVID-19 cases in Odisha along the lines inMaharashtra, the Naveen Patnaik government Friday asked alldistrict authorities to strictly implement pandemicappropriate behaviour even as the state reported a significantdrop in the daily new positive cases.

The state government put all the districts,commissioners of different municipal corporations, the policecommissioners of Bhubaneswar-Cuttack and others to remainvigilant about the possible spike of COVID-19 cases.

Additional chief secretary to the health andfamily welfare department, P K Mohapatra said that there hasbeen a surge of COVID-19 positive cases across somestates and it is quite possible that such a situation mayarise in Odisha too unless adequate precautions are taken.

You are therefore directed to ensure strictenforcement of COVID-19 Appropriate Behaviour in yourdistrict/city to prevent any spike in cases. Adequate testinglevels should be maintained as per guidelines, he said in aletter.

Special care should be taken to ensure that thesemeasures are implemented in crowded places such as markets,religious institutions and others, the letter said.

There should not be any deviation in implementingthe instructions, it added.

The state on the other hand recorded significant fallin the daily new positive cases, a health department officialsaid.

The state had reported 63 new cases onThursday.

Odisha's COVID-19 tally is 3,36,513 after 53 peopletested positive for the virus on Friday, while one morefatality pushed the death toll to 1,914, he said.

The state also registered recovery of 92 patientstaking the number of cured persons to 3,33,980, which is 99.24per cent of the caseload.

Odishas case fatality rate (CFR) stands at 0.56 percent, while the states positivity rate ius 4.14per cent.

Of the new cases, 31 were reported from variousquarantine centres and the remaining are local-contactinfections.

''Regret to inform the demise of 74-year-old male Covidpositive patient of Bhubaneswar...'' the Health and FamilyWelfare Department tweeted.

A total of 53 other COVID-19 patients have died due tocomorbidities, the official said.

A total of 1,914 fatalities have been reported so far,the official said adding Khurda district accounted for 337deaths, followed by Ganjam (248), Sundergarh (173), Cuttack(142) and Puri (117).

Odisha now has 566 active cases, which is 0,16 percent of the caseload.

The state has conducted over 81.23 lakh sample testsfor COVID-19, including 22,486 on Thursday, the officialadded.