 "Coronavirus testing")
Odisha's COVID-19 tally rose to 1,67,161 on Thursday as 4,241 more people, including a BJP MLA, tested positive for the infection, while 13 fresh fatalities took the state's coronavirus death toll to 669, a health official said.
The state had reported its highest single-day spike of 4,270 coronavirus cases on Wednesday.
Odisha also registered recovery of as many as 3,607 patients taking the number of people cured of the disease to 1,33,466 which is 79.84 per cent of the state's total caseload.
As many as 2,502 new cases were detected in quarantine centres, while 1,739 people tested positive for the infection during contact tracing, he said.
Khurda district, of which Bhubaneswar is a part, registered the highest number of new cases at 647, followed by Cuttack (389) and Puri (291), the official said.
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BJP MLA from Puri, Jayant Kumar Sarangi, said in a social media post that he has tested positive for COVID-19.
The number of MLAs infected with the coronavirus now increased to 26 besides eight ministers. Three MPs from the state have been afflicted with the disease.
Four fresh fatalities each were reported in Puri and Khurda districts, two in Gajapati and one each in Balasore, Cuttack and Subarnapur districts, he said.
Fifty-three COVID-19 patients have died in the state due to other ailments so far, the official said.
Ganjam district has so far reported the highest number of coronavirus deaths at 215, followed by Khurda (100) and Cuttack (55), he said.
Odisha now has 32,073 active cases, the official said.
The state has so far tested over 26.19 lakh samples for COVID-19, including 51,824 on Wednesday, he added.
The Health Department, in a statement, said plasma therapy has been administered to 1,000 patients in the state so far.
Plasma therapy for critical coronavirus patients was launched in Odisha at the SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on July 15.
Meanwhile, a day after Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik expressed his displeasure over poor enforcement of COVID-19 guideline in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack, the Commissinrate of Police divided the state capital into three zones for its better implementation.
One DCP will be in charge of each zone, an official said.
With the deployment of 50 more officers and five platoons of armed forces, enforcement will also be intensified in market areas and specific hotspots, DGP Abhay said.
It was found that the people in the twin cities roam markets without wearing masks and not maintaining social distancing. Bhubaneswar has added around 3,000 cases and Cuttack 1,500 new cases in the list of infection in last one week, health department sources said.
The Bhubaneswar police have penalised 3,872 people for violation of COVID 19 guidelines.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
