Odisha logs 11,607 new COVID-19 cases, 6 fatalities, 145 fresh Omicron cases

The tests in the first phase will be conducted in places reporting high test positive rates TPR, the official said.Meanwhile, the COVID-19 toll in Odisha mounted to 8,494 with six fresh fatalities, the highest single-day count in more than three months, he said.Fiftythree other coronavirus-positive patients have died due to comorbidities so far, the bulletin said.At least 991 children were among the new patients and the TPR stood at 16.7 per cent, it said.The number of new infections is the highest since May 26 last year when 11,623 coronavirus cases were reported on that day.

Odisha on Wednesday recorded 11,607 new COVID-19 cases, 521 more than the previous day, and 145 more Omicron cases taking the tally of the new variant to 347, a health department bulletin said.

The caseload is now 11,67,094, it said.

The new Omicron cases were confirmed after genome sequencing by the Institute of Life Science (ILS), Bhubaneswar out of a total 249 samples collected between January 9 to January 16, 2022, a health department official said.

Odisha government Wednesday started trial run of OmiSure test kits for early detection of Omicron virus within four hours. The tests in the first phase will be conducted in places reporting high test positive rates (TPR), the official said.

Meanwhile, the COVID-19 toll in Odisha mounted to 8,494 with six fresh fatalities, the highest single-day count in more than three months, he said.

Fiftythree other coronavirus-positive patients have died due to comorbidities so far, the bulletin said.

At least 991 children were among the new patients and the TPR stood at 16.7 per cent, it said.

The number of new infections is the highest since May 26 last year when 11,623 coronavirus cases were reported on that day. The increase is more than 32 per cent from 8,778 a week ago.

Khurda district, which comprises the state capital Bhubaneswar, registered more than one-third of the fresh cases with 4,347 infections, followed by 1,219 in Sundargarh and 898 in Cuttack, the bulletin said.

Khurda has a TPR of 31.3 per cent, while it is 29.4 in Sundargarh, 20.2 in Jagatsinghpur and 18.4 in Cuttack. Nineteen more districts are in the red category with a positivity of more than 7.5.

Altogether 10,73,777 people, including 7,745 on Tuesday, have recuperated from the disease so far, it said.

Odisha now has 84,770 active cases, including 29,745 in Khurda which is in the red zone along with Sundargarh, Cuttack, Sambalpur and Balasore. A district with over 2,500 coronavirus infections is included in the category.

Puri and Mayurbhanj are among the 11 districts that are in the yellow zone with over 1,000 patients each.

The state tested 69,502 samples in the last 24 hours in comparison to 70,117 on Monday and 81,065 last Wednesday.

Health Services Director Bijay Mohapatra said the government will look at how much testing could be increased after considering various aspects, including the recent ICMR guidelines.

His statement came hours after the union government flagged a decline in the number of tests in many states, including Odisha, directing them to enhance it to effectively track the coronavirus spread and initiate immediate citizen-centric action.

Mohapatra urged people to conduct tests even if they developed minor symptoms.

Around 2.31 crore people have been fully vaccinated in the state so far, the department added.

Meanwhile, chief secretary S C Mohapatra in a video message urged people to adhere to COVID appropriate behaviour to fight the third wave in Odisha.

"The infection rate is rising rapidly and daily cases are hovering around 10,000-11,000 for the past one week. We cannot let our guard down. If we are not careful, cases will rise further," he said, adding that the next few days are crucial for Odisha in terms of COVID management.

He said that hospitalisation and ICU requirement is currently low compared to the previous waves of coronavirus. "Only two per cent active cases have so far been hospitalised against 10 per cent during the second wave. Ninety per cent hospital beds in the state are now vacant".

Mohapatra said that containment measures will not affect people's livelihoods as "COVID-19 restrictions in this wave have been devised to protect livelihoods. Hence, there has been no general lockdown or shutdown".

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)