 "Odisha logs 602 fresh Covid-19 cases, 6 new fatalities on Thursday")
Odisha's COVID-19 caseload on Thursday surged to 10,26,476 as 602 people, including 96 children and adolescents, tested positive for the virus while six new fatalities pushed the coronavirus death toll to 8,198, a health department official said.
The state on Wednesday, Tuesday and Monday had reported 565, 545 and 585 cases respectively.
The rate of infection among children and adolescents in the age group of 0 to 18 years now is 15.94 per cent, he said.
With detection of 602 new cases from 68,254 samples tested on Wednesday, the test positivity rate (TPR) dropped to 0.88 per cent from 0.96 per cent the previous day. The TPR was 1.03 per cent on Tuesday.
While 353 cases were reported from quarantine centres, the remaining 249 were local contacts. Khurda district reported the highest 283 cases followed by Cuttack at 54. These two districts accounted for 50.33 per cent of the fresh infections. Six districts reported zero cases.
The Health and Family Welfare (H&FW) department said of six new deaths - Khurda and Kendrapara reported two fatalities each while Angul and Jagatsinghpur one each.
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This apart, 53 other COVID-19 patients have also died in the state due to comorbidities.
Odisha currently has 5,642 active COVID-19 cases while 10,12,583 patients including 467 on Wednesday, have recovered from the highly infectious disease.
Odisha has thus far conducted over 1.99 crore sample tests including 68,254 on Wednesday. The state's positivity rate stands at 5.14 per cent, he said.
As the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to continue for some more time, the Odisha Government has planned to develop 6, 20 and 50 bedded prefab structure at different health care facilities across the state under the Emergency COVID Response Plan-II, to deal with future exigencies, official sources said.
The state's Works Department has written to Chief Engineer (Buildings) to take immediate steps for execution of the project in consultation with National Health Mission (NHM) Odisha and Health and Family Welfare Department.
NHM, Odisha Director Shalini Pandit has maintained that the project should be completed well before March 31, 2022.
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