Odisha's COVID-19 tally rises to 11,956, toll climbs to 56

Odisha on Friday registered its highest single-day spike of 755 COVID-19 cases, taking the tally to 11,956, while the death toll mounted to 56 with four more patients succumbing to the infectious disease, a health department official said.

Detection of 755 more positive cases is a record in Odisha since the first case was detected in the state on March 15, the official said.

While 508 of the new cases were reported from different quarantine centres, remaining 247 are local contacts. Contact tracing and follow-up action is underway, he said.

In a statement, the department said, "Regret to inform the demise of 4 COVID positive patients while under treatment in hospital".

Two other COVID patients died due to other causes. The number of COVID-19 positive patients succumbing to other diseases increased to 17, the official said The patients who died of non-COVID reasons were identified as a 57-year-old man belonging to Sundargarh district, who died due to lung cancer, and a 70-year-old man of Bhadrak district. He also died of cancer of the bladder, the official said.

With this, the number of COVID-19 fatalities in Odisha mounted to 56 while the states hotspot Ganjam district accounted for 34 deaths, the official said.

Ganjam was followed by Khurda (8), Cuttack (5) and one each from Angul, Bargarh, Bhadrak, Gajapati, Jajpur, Kendrapara, Puri, Rayagada and Sundergarh districts.

The new positive cases have been reported from 23 districts. Ganjam reported the highest 320 new cases followed by Jajpur (86), Sundergarh (62), Khurda (59) and Cuttack (55). Other districts were: Angul (3), Balasore (9), Bargarh (1), Bhadrak (2), Balangir (12), Deogarh (4), Dhenkanal (4), Gajapati (30), Jagatsinghpur (5), Kandhamal (2), Kendrapada (5), Keonjhar (32), Koraput (5), Malkangiri (18), Mayurbhanj (12), Nayagarh (16), Puri (11), and Sambalpur(2).

With the new cases, the number of active cases in the state has increased to 4,476 while 7,407 patients have so far recovered in the state.

As many as 6,456 fresh COVID-19 samples were tested, taking the total tests done in the state so far to 3,21,443.