141 more test positive for COVID-19 in Odisha

Odisha reported 141 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, taking the total number of people infected with the disease to 2,245 in the state, a health department official said.

Of the new patients, 110 had recently returned to the

state from various parts of the country and were in quarantine centres across districts, while 31 others were detected with the infection as a result of contact-tracing exercises, he said.

The new cases were reported from 18 districts.

The maximum of 27 fresh cases were found in Ganjam district, followed by 26 in Khurda, 19 in Nuapada, 13 in Kendrapara, 10 in Jajpur, eight in Sundergarh, seven in Bolangir, six in Cuttack and five in Puri.

Four each were reported from Jagatsinghpur, Gajapat and Keonjhar, two each in Dhenkanal and Balasore, and one each in Mayurbhanj, Nayagarh, Angul and Sambalpur districts.

With these fresh ones, the number of active COVID-19 cases increased to 991 in Odisha, while 1,245 patients have recovered so far.

"Seven persons succumbed to the disease, while two others died due to non-COVID reasons," the official said.Odisha had registered its highest single-day spike of

COVID-19 cases on Monday, with 156 people testing positive for the virus. The state health department has so far tested 1,59,567 samples, he said.

A total of 3,877 samples were tested on Monday. The districts, which have reported more than 100 coronavirus cases in the state are Ganjam (458), Jajpur (290), Khurda (167), Balasore (154), Kendrapara (152), Cuttack (126) and Bhadrak (120).

Of the 30 districts, only Rayagada in southern Odisha remains free from the coronavirus outbreak.