Odisha, which last recorded 2,000 COVID-19 cases in October last year, again sees spike
Passengers being screened for COVID-19 at the Bhubaneswar Railway Station. Photo: Ashis Senapati Odisha recorded a single-day spike of 2,267 new positive cases of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) till midnight of April 13, 2021, government officials said April 14.
Some 1,314 of the newly infected patients are in quarantine. Around 953 of the patients have contacted the disease locally. The total number of positive cases in Odisha now stands at 355,353, according to the government.
Three patients succumbed to COVID-19 in Odisha in the last 24 hours, taking the toll to 1,933, Bijay Panigrahi, the director of the health and family welfare department, Government of Odisha, said.
Odisha had last hit the 2,000-mark October 17, 2020 when 2019 people had tested positive for the virus —Some 851 of the patients had contacted the disease locally.
This time, Sundargarh district, bordering Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, has topped the list with 458 cases, followed by Khordha (348), Sambalpur (120), Bargarh (120), Cuttack (117), Nuapada (104) and Nabarangpur (104).
Odisha has so far tested a total of 9,461,720 samples including 33,251 April 13, 2021. The state’s positivity rate stands at 3.74 per cent, added Panigrahi.
Ajit Mangaraj, a candidate from the Congress, who was contesting a by-election for the Pipili assembly segment, passed away April 14 while undergoing treatment for COVID-19 at a private hospital in Bhubaneswar three days ahead of the poll.
An additional 300-bed COVID-19 hospital will be set up at the Veer Surendra Sai Institute of Medical Sciences and Research in Burla of Sambalpur district. It will constitute 250 general beds with oxygen facilities and 50 intensive care units. It will be ready within 10 days, Suresh Chandra Mohapatra, Odisha’s chief secretary said April 14.
All vehicles coming to Odisha from West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh are being inspected and their occupants tested for COVID-19, Mohapatra said.
They are allowed to enter only if they test negative. Otherwise, they are immediately admitted to the hospital. Patrolling has been intensified on all inter-state borders, he added.
The health department has halted all elective surgeries in the government and private hospitals of the state. We have also suspended central registration for the time being. Manual registration will be taken up with proper social distancing measures in each out-patient department to avoid large gatherings at the central registration counter. The state government has also imposed restrictions on patients and attendants in hospitals to decongest unnecessary crowds, added Mohapatra.
The district administrations of Ganjam and Jagatsinghpur imposed Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure as a precautionary measure on the Odia New Year Day April 14 to restrain people from visiting temples and other religious places in large numbers. The restriction prohibits the assembly of four or more persons in an area.
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