Bhubaneswar: A day after reporting the highest single-day count of 34 cases of SARS-nCoV infection, Odisha on Friday saw 26 more such cases, a steep rise for second day running, taking the State's overall COVID tally to 245.
Thanks to massive influx of migrants, Ganjam district continues to cause worries for Odisha reporting 19 new novel-Coronavirus cases on Friday. The development now means that the total confirmed COVID cases in the district stand at 47 making it the third most high-burden region in the State. Out of 19 new positive cases in Ganjam today, 18 are Surat returnees and 'one' is Kerala returnee, informed I &PR department.
If cases continue at this rate, Ganjam might surpass Khurda and Jajpur districts which are now placed in ‘Red Zone’ category to become the new COVID hotbed in Odisha.
Apart from Ganjam, five COVID-19 positive cases were reported from Kendrapara and two cases from Bhadrak district today.
With 55 COVID-19 cases, Jajpur district tops the chart of affected districts in Odisha, followed by Khurda (50), Ganjam (47), Balasore (27), Bhadrak (23) and Sundergarh (12).
Jajpur district also has highest 54 active COVID-19 cases, followed by Ganjam (47), Balasore (22), Khurda (16) and Bhadrak (11).
Five districts of Odisha- Bhubaneswar, Ganjam, Jajpur, Bhadrak and Balasore are placed in the ‘Red Zone’ category while 12 districts in ‘Orange’ and rest district in ‘Green Zones.'
Earlier, the State witnessed a single day spike with 34 fresh cases being reported yesterday. Out of the total 34 cases, Ganjam district attributed highest count of 24 positive cases. All the 24 COVID-19 patients had returned from Surat and are currently in quarantine.
Apart from Ganjam, three more coronavirus cases were reported in Bhubaneswar yesterday. The Capital city had last reported a COVID-19 positive case on April 29. The new cases were reported from Mancheswar, VSS Nagar and Suryanagar area of the Smart City.
Mayurbhanj district, which was one of the Green zones in the State, reported four positive cases yesterday. All the positive cases reported from the district were Surat returnees. Besides, two COVID-19 cases were also reported in Balasore and one from Jagatsinghpur district.
On the other hand, the State Information and Public Relations (I&PR) Department secretary, Sanjay Singh today said that no returnees can get down from bus while returning to the State.
It has been noticed that the returnees are alighting from bus en route their destination districts posing grave risk to public health and safety. It is therefore instructed that no bus or any other vehicle will be allowed to board or alight any returnee en route from the Border Check Point (BCP) and in case of violation, the vehicle and the driver will be detained and face legal action, said Singh.