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Updated August 17th, 2021 at 15:29 IST

Odisha logs 720 new COVID-19 cases, 68 fresh fatalities

Odisha's COVID-19 tally rose to 9,96,153 on Tuesday as 720 more people, including 96 children, tested positive for the infection – the lowest daily spike in four months – while 68 fresh fatalities pushed the state's coronavirus death toll to 7,021, a health official said.

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Odisha's COVID-19 tally rose to 9,96,153 on Tuesday as 720 more people, including 96 children, tested positive for the infection – the lowest daily spike in four months – while 68 fresh fatalities pushed the state's coronavirus death toll to 7,021, a health official said.

The daily test positivity rate, however, witnessed a slight increase to 1.41 per cent from 1.39 per cent on Monday, he said.

As many as 421 new cases were reported in quarantine centres, while 299 fresh infections were detected during contact tracing, the official said.

Khurda district, under which Bhubaneswar falls, recorded the highest number of new cases at 279, followed by Cuttack (91). Gajapati did not register any fresh infection, while 27 remaining districts reported less than 100 new cases each.

Cuttack registered the highest number of fresh fatalities at 14, followed by Angul and Jagatsinghpur (eight each) and Jajpur (seven).

The state now has 9,672 active cases, while 9,79,407 people have thus far recovered from the disease, including 1,167 on Monday. Fifty-three coronavirus patients have died due to comorbidities to date.

Odisha has tested over 1.71 crore samples for COVID-19 so far, including 50,727 on Monday, he said, adding that the cumulative positivity rate stood at 5.81 percent. The state has so far inoculated over 1.96 crore people, of whom 45.24 lakh have received both doses.

The Odisha government has decided to conduct serological surveillance in 12 of the 30 districts to estimate and compare age-specific prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies among commoners and healthcare workers.

The state administration has asked the Regional Medical Research Centre, Bhubaneswar to carry out the survey in Sambalpur, Sundargarh, Jharsuguda, Keonjhar, Khordha, Puri, Balasore, Mayurbhanj, Jajpur, Kandhamal, Kalahandi and Nabarangpur districts.

Health Additional Chief Secretary P K Mohapatra said that Rs 57.70 lakh required for the survey will be spent from the Public Health Response Fund. 

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Published August 17th, 2021 at 15:29 IST

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