Highest single-day spike of 1,833 COVID-19 cases in Odisha, toll 247

 Odisha on Friday registered its highest single-day spike in COVID-19 cases and recovery with 1,833 people testing positive and 1,810 others being cured, a health official said.

The toll in the state increased to 247 as 12 more patients succumbed to the disease, he said.

The spike in the cases of coronavirus which was reported from 29 out Odisha's 30 districts pushed its caseload to 42,550, the official said.

As many as 1,118 new cases were reported from the quarantine centres, while 715 people tested positive for the infection during contact tracing, he said.

Khurda district, under which Bhubaneswar falls, reported the highest number of 298 new cases followed by 279 at Ganjam, which is being considered a hotspot for the disease. 152 cases were reported from Rayagada, 124 from Cuttack and 110 from Sundergarh. The rest of the districts registered less than 100 fresh infections each.

On the day's fatalities, he said Ganjam and Sundergarh districts registered three deaths each, while Mayurbhanj, Kendrapara, Sambalpur, Bhadrak, Dhenkanal and Gajapati reported one casualty each, he said.

Mayurbhanj and Dhenkanal registered their first COVID-19 deaths, the official said.

Of the 247 COVID-19 deaths reported in the state so far, Ganjam accounted for the highest number of 123, followed by 31 in Khurda, 16 in Sundergarh, 15 in Gajapati and 11 in Cuttack. Fortyfive other COVID-19 patients have died due to other ailments, the official said.

A record number of 1810 COVID-19 patients recovered from the disease during the day taking the total number of such persons in the state to 28,698, which is 67.44 per cent against Thursdays recovery rate of 66.03 per cent, the official said.

Of the 1,810 people who recovered on Friday 700 are from Ganjam, followed by 202 from Khurdha, 147 from Cuttack, 136 from Gajapati, 116 from Dhenkanal and 106 from Sundergarh, Other districts reported recovery below 100 marks.

The number of active cases in the state now stands at 13,560 which is 31.86 per cent against Thursdays 33,27 per cent, as per the official data released by the health department.

In view of the surge in COVID-19 cases, the Odisha government Friday allowed private hospitals to to treat coronavirus patients but warned them of strict action if high rates were charged.

It also started operation of an ICU at the Dedicated Covid Healthcare Centre (DCHC) in Puri with the support of in-house team and specialists from SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack to strengthen Odisha's fight against the contagion.

As many as 15,371 persons are presently in hospital isolation across the state, the official said.

The state governments action came in the backdrop of 24,812 new cases and 152 deaths reported in a span of only 30 days in July.

The trend continued in August, when during its first seven days 9,637 new cases have been added while 70 people succumbed to the disease during the period.

Odisha on Thursday tested a record number of 16,055 samples for COVID-19, taking the total number of tests conducted so far to 6,16,646, the official added.