7 fresh COVID-19 cases reported in Odisha, total mounts to 110

Seven persons, including four women, tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday, taking the total number of coronavirus cases in Odisha to 110, officials said.

While six fresh cases were reported from Balasore, a 22-year-old male health worker tested positive for COVID-19 from Dasmantpur block in Koraput district.

The health worker is the first COVID-19 patient from the tribal-dominated Koraput district as well as south Odisha. A male staff nurse in a government health centre, he was asymptomatic, the official said.

The Koraput patient, who had returned from Kolkata on April 14 to join duty, was put under quarantine in view of his travel history and had not joined work. Following COVID-19 test, he was diagnosed with the disease, the official said.

With Koraput district reporting a coronavirus positive patient, COVID-19 cases have now been reported in 11 out of the 30 districts of Odisha.

Of the six cases reported from Balasore on Monday, four were women and two men. The latest Balasore case was a 32-year-old man who has recently returned from West Bengal.

Regarding five others in Balasore district, the Information and Public Relations department said four were women (55 years, 22 years, 23 years and 29 years respectively) and a male patient aged 27 years.

The official said all the detected cases from Balasore had mild symptoms and they were under home quarantine. Contact tracing and follow up action is being done.

With this, the total number of COVID-19 patients in Balasore district, bordering West Bengal, has increased to 16. The samples of the new patients were collected during the 60- hour complete shutdown imposed in the district from 10 pm of April 23 to 10 am of April 26.

Of the state's 110 COVID-19 cases, 72 are active as 37 persons have recovered from the disease. A 72-year-old man from Bhubaneswar died due to the contagion on April 6.

Earlier in the day, two COVID-19 patients from Bhubaneswar were declared cured and discharged from hospital. Of the total COVID-19 cases reported in the state so far, 46 were detected from Khurda district, of which Bhubaneswar is a part, followed by 18 from Jajpur, 16 each from Bhadrak and Balasore, six in Sundargarh, two each in Kendrapara and Kalahandi districts and one each in Cuttack, Dhenkanal, Puri and Koraput.

A total of 25,103 samples have been tested by April 26 midnight in eight laboratories, an official said. \