Six test positive for COVID-19 in Odisha, total rises to 175

Six people, five of whom had recently returned from Gujarat and West Bengal, tested positive for COVID-19 in Odisha on Tuesday, taking the total number of cases in the state to 175, an official said.

The number of active COVID-19 cases now stands at 114.

Of the six new cases, three hailed from Balasore and one each from Ganjam, Sundergarh and Cuttack districts, the official said.

The latest report came from Rourkela in Sundergarh district, where a 49-year-old man tested positive for the deadly virus after he returned from Kolkata.

The new cases in Cuttack and Ganjam districts are of two people who recently returned from Surat in Gujarat. Cuttack district had last reported a COVID-19 case on April 3 while Ganjam falls in the orange zone.

In Balasore district, the three new patients comprised two men aged 50 and 26 years and a 40-year-old woman. The two men had recently returned from West Bengal.

Contact tracing and follow-up actions are being undertaken in the three districts, the official said.

A total of 3,535 samples were tested for COVID-19 in Odisha on Monday, the highest in a day in the state, the official said. The Health Department has tested 44,663 samples so far.

Jajpur district has reported the maximum number of cases at 52, followed by Bhubaneswar 47, Balasore 24, Bhadrak 21 and Sundargarh 12.

Three positive cases have been reported from Ganjam district while two cases each have been reported in Cuttack, Jharsuguda, Kendrapara, Bolangir, Keonjhar and Kalahandi and one each in Puri, Dhenkanal, Deogarh and Koraput districts.

Sixty people have recovered from the disease. The state has reported only one coronavirus death - a 72-year-old man from Bhubaneswar who died on April 6.

A total of 226 people, both suspected and confirmed cases, are presently in hospital isolation