Odisha's COVID tally climbs to 9,526, death toll mounts to 38

Odisha's COVID-19 tally climbed to 9,526, with 456 more people testing positive for the deadly virus while two other patients succumbed to the disease taking the state's death toll to 38, a health department official said Monday.

The two deceased persons hailed from Ganjam and Jajpur districts. While the COVID-19 death toll of Ganjam district has mounted to 21, Jajpur registered its first such death.

The deceased included a 77-year-old man hailing from Ganjam, who was suffering from hypertension ,and a 64-year-old man from Jajpur district, also a patient of diabetes.

This apart, the health department said 10 COVID positive patients have also died, but the cause of their deaths was due to other reasons.

In a separate tweet, Ganjam District Collector V A Kulange said: "We lost our four COVID Warriors (people who work among the positive patients). Entire district administration is with their families. We request all people in Ganjam to follow social distancing norms. By doing this you will help our COVID warriors in fighting this war." Kulange did not mention when the four deaths took place in Ganjam district. He, however, mentioned that an Anganwadi worker, a junior contractual teacher, a junior engineer and a teacher of a government school have succumbed to the highly infectious disease.

Of the 38 COVID-19 deaths so far in Odisha, Ganjam, the worst-hit district, accounts for 21, followed by seven in Khurda, four in Cuttack, and one each in Jajpur, Gajapati, Sundergarh, Puri, Bargarh and Angul, the report said.

With detection of new cases, the COVID tally in Odisha increased to 9,526, the official said, adding that 309 cases have been reported from different quarantine centres while 147 persons are local contacts.

Contact tracing and follow-up action is underway, said the department. Of the new cases, highest 166 were detected in Ganjam followed by Jajpur (57), Bargarh (33), Nabarangpur (24), Jagatsinghpur (23) Khurda (21), Sundergarh (20) and 17 other districts reported less than 20 cases.

With the detection of new cases, the number of active COVID-19 cases in the state increased to 3,254 while 6,224 patients have so far recovered in the state.

Odisha on Sunday conducted 4,827 tests, taking the total number of tests so far to 2,97,234 in the state.

Meanwhile, the OPD of Sishu Bhavan in Cuttack was shut after detection of a COVID-19 case. The unit will remain closed till further order, said hospital superintendent Dr Saroj Satpathy.