 "Kerala")
Odisha on Wednesday registered a 24 per cent increase in fresh coronavirus cases as compared to the previous day as 8,778 more people tested positive for the infection, which is the biggest single-day spike since June 3 last year, a health bulletin said.
The positivity rate increased to 11.77 per cent from 10.25 per cent on the previous day as 74,611 samples were tested.
As many as 792 children were among the new patients, who took the state's caseload to 10,91,547.
Khurda district, under which Bhubaneswar falls, reported over a quarter of the new cases as 2,615 people were afflicted with the disease. Sundargarh logged 1,252 infections, followed by 766 in Cuttack and 596 in Sambalpur, it said.
The cases shot up by more than seven-fold from 1,216 infections a week ago. The state had logged 7,071 cases on Tuesday, while it had registered 8,839 infections on June 3 last year.
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The number of active cases in the state climbed to 35,242 -- including 11,049 in Khurda, which is in the red zone along with Sundargarh, Sambalpur and Cuttack. Balasore is in the yellow zone with 1,023 patients, the bulletin said.
The toll stood at 8,469 as no fresh fatality was registered. Fifty-three other patients have died due to comorbidities so far, it said.
A total of 10,47,783 people have recovered from the disease thus far, including 752 in the last 24 hours, it added.
Public Health Director Niranjan Mishra said that the positivity rate was particularly high in four-five districts and the situation would be crucial till early March.
A majority of the patients are either asymptomatic or have mild symptoms. The hospitalisation rate, demand for ICU beds and the death rate are under control, he told reporters.
Vaccination in-charge Bijay Panigrahi said that a doorstep inoculation drive was underway for those who were yet to take the first dose.
More than 3.04 crore people took the first jab of the coronavirus vaccine, while over 2.21 crore were administered the second shot in the state.
(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.)
