Odisha's COVID-19 caseload crosses 47,000-mark; death toll mounts to 286

Odisha registered its highest single-day spike in COVID-19 deaths on Monday as 14 patients succumbed to the disease, while 1,528 new infections pushed its caseload to 47,455, a health official said.

The fresh fatalities have taken the COVID-19 death toll in the state to 286, he said.

Ganjam district, Odisha's COVID-19 hotspot, reported six of the 14 fatalities, while Khurda and Nayagarh registered three deaths each and two patients succumbed to the infection in Sundargarh and Rayagada, the official said.

Worst-hit Ganjam has so far reported 137 COVID-19 deaths, followed by 38 in Khurda, he said.

Two more COVID-19 patients have died due to other ailments, taking the count of such fatalities to 51 in Odisha, the official said.

The fresh cases were reported from 29 of the state's 30 districts.

As many as 948 cases were detected in quarantine centres, while 580 people tested positive for the infection during contact tracing, he said.

Ganjam reported the highest number of new cases at 233, followed by Khurda (218), Sambalpur (168), Sundargarh (126) and Dhenkanal (107), the official said.

Meanwhile, 1,236 patients have been cured of the disease on Monday.

Odisha now has 14,097 active cases, while 33,021 people have recovered from the infection so far, he said.

The recovery rate in the state is at 69.58 per cent, and the fatality ratio stands at 0.60 per cent, the official said.

Odisha has so far tested 6,69,266 samples for COVID- 19, including 19,083 on Sunday, he added.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, through a video conference, interacted with the Sarpanchs of Ganjam district and appreciated their efforts in managing the coronavirus outbreak and taking strong measures like imposing lockdowns to combat the COVID-19 crisis.

The chief minister said the dedicated work of the Panchayati Raj institution members helped the state to achieve high recovery of COVID patients.