Odisha Channel Bureau
Bhubaneswar: Six districts in Odisha are fast emerging as epicenters of coronavirus accounting for 50% of total case even as the State’s COVID-19 tally today rose to 1,62,920 reporting the steepest single day spike of 4,270 new cases from all the 30 districts.
Eleven fresh fatalities were reported today pushing the coronavirus death toll to 656, the health and family welfare department officials said.
The redeeming features of otherwise fast-deteriorating pandemic health crisis are the high rate of recovery and low ratio of fatality of COVID patients in the State.
Khordha, Ganjam, Cuttack, Puri, Rayagada and Jajpur districts with a combined tally of 81,308 positive cases have reported 49.90% of Odisha’s total COVID count and the spike in cases in these districts in general and in Khordha, Cuttack and Puri in particular has become a major cause of worry for the pandemic managers.
Ganjam and Khordha districts, the hotspots of the disease, have reported a whopping 47,516 positive cases, accounting for 30% of total positive cases of the State.
While Khordha has replaced Ganjam as the virus hotspot, the pandemic graph in southern district has been flattened within the past fortnight. Today the district with 68 cases reported less than 100 infections for the 10th day in a row.
As many as 1,25,738 COVID-19 patients have been cured of the disease at an impressive 77.17% rate, while the death toll rate in the State stands at 0.40%. While the recovery is above the national average, the death toll is lower than overall percentage of COVID fatalities in the country.
The high recovery and low fatality rate has become possible due to early identification, aggressive testing and enhanced clinical treatment at the COVID hospitals.
The strict adherence to 3Ts norms of test-track-treat is paying dividends even though there has been unprecedented 35% growth of infections and alarming rise in fatality in the current month.
As many as 56,359 infections have been reported in the current month while 53 COVID patients have succumbed to the contagion in the past 16 days, according to officials.
Of the 4,270 new cases, a total of 2,478 new cases were detected in quarantine centres, while 1,792 people tested positive for the infection during contact tracing. The local contact cases amounted to 42% of total cases in the past 24 hours.
Khordha district that includes the capital city of Bhubaneswar on Wednesday reported the highest number of new cases at 876, followed by 374 in Cuttack and 287 in Puri.
There are now 36,473 active COVID-19 cases in Odisha which is 22% of total infections reported so far in the State.
Of the infected persons, 67.9% are men while women constitute 32.1% of total patients. 54.6% of the total patients are in the 15-40 age-group.
The vulnerable groups of patients in 60 years or above and 14 years or below age comprise 14.5% of the total tally of COVID-19 patients in the State.
The Deogarh district with a tally of 440 infections stands at the bottom of COVID-19 chart with 70% recovery and zero fatality rate and is the least affected district due to the pandemic.
