Odisha's COVID death toll climbs to 207 with 10 more fatalities, 1,384 new cases found

The death toll due to COVID- 19 in Odisha crossed the 200-mark on Monday with 10 more fatalities taking the total to 207, a Health Department official said. At least 1,384 more people have tested positive for the disease, pushing the tally to 36,297, he said. The state also registered the highest single-day recovery of 1,119 COVID-19 patients taking the number of people who have been cured of the disease to 23,074, which is 63.56 of the total caseload in the state, the official said. Of the fresh fatalities, three each were reported from Ganjam and Rayagada districts, two from Gajapati and one each from Kalahandi and Khurda.

"At least six of the 10 deceased had comorbidities," the official said.

Ganjam district, Odisha's coronavirus hotspot, has so far accounted for 106 fatalities, followed by Khurda (29), Gajapati (13), Cuttack (11), Rayagada and Sundergarh (10 each). Of the 1,384 new cases reported from 26 districts, 873 were detected in quarantine centres. The districts reporting high number of fresh cases include Ganjam (331), Khurda (211) and Sambalpur (93). The number of active cases in the state currently stands at 12,975 which is 35.74 per cent of the total cases.

A total of 13,272 samples were examined for the infection on Sunday, taking the total number of tests conducted so far to 5,56,588, the official added. Meanwhile, the state government in a modified order directed closure of restaurants in view of the huge rush in eateries in two days after they were allowed to reopen. However, the restaurants can deliver takeaway/ home delivery of food items as they had been doing during the previous months. Hotels can serve in-house guests, a notification said.

The Regional Medical Research Centre, Bhubaneswar, said it launched the second phase of the serological survey in Berhampur Municipal Corporation jurisdiction from Monday and start the exercise in the state capital from August 16. RMRC Director Dr Sanghamitra Pati said, "The second sero-survey in Bhubaneswar is significant. As Bhubaneswar has witnessed a surge of positive cases in July, the mid-August survey report will decide the future plan of action." On the previous sero-survey in Bhubaneswar and Puri, Dr Pati said that the findings have been shared with the state government.

The Bhubaneswar survey indicated that 1.4 per cent of people have developed antibodies against the highly infectious virus, she said. On the sero survey in Berhampur Municipal Corporation area, Dr Pati said the RMRC with help of local urban body will conduct the survey of 2,500 random samples.