Covid-19 Sunday Surge propels Odisha to 13th nationally in n-CoV positive rate!

Bhubaneswar: The sporadic surge of novel coronavirus cases in Odisha during the last 4-days propelled Odisha to become country's 16th most Covid-19 positive State from 25th slot on April 1. Between April 3 and 5, the State recorded a high of 34 new cases.

The surge has an impact. The net positive rate (NPR) in Odisha has now crossed the 2 per cent mark. Among 30 states and UTs, Odisha now occupies the 13th slot in Covid-19 NPR. The State saw testing of 1,888 samples till April 5, and the positive count stood at 39.

Also, in a jiffy, the number of cluster containment zones in the Temple City jumped to four. The State as a whole now has 10 such Covid-19 cluster containment zones, when the State has seen only sporadic cases, not community cluster cases.  Odisha is yet to show any community cluster transmission of novel coronavirus cases, conceded State Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy.

As per WHO classification, the number of Covid-19 cases reported till date comes under the stage of reporting sporadic n-CoV cases, especially when it is also seen in the context of the State Health Department data.

The classification of Covid-19 cases in Odisha till date haven't exhibited any community cluster transmission, unlike the nationwide positive cases reported from Tablighi cluster.

In Odisha, of a total of 39 Covid-19 positive cases,  the Capital City, Bhubaneswar, tally alone stood at 34. A further de-classification shows the cases are not clusters in nature as they are limited to a family, be it the case of Bomikhal or Suryanagar.

As per WHO,  the strategy in such a scenario should be on isolation and quarantine of novel coronavirus positives and their contacts to stop transmission.

But Odisha government has brought in the cluster containment plan. As per State government's direction, entry and exit points of the zones are sealed. Such a strategy, WHO says, is applicable when evidence of community transmission of Covid-19 is detected.

Since the cases are confined to a single family, the invoking of cluster containment strategy can be termed as a knee-jerk reaction by State government to take on the Covid-19  challenge.

However, what prompted the State government to take such an extreme strategy?

A big shift was observed between first 5 Covid-19 cases and the subsequent new cases. In the cases of first 5 Covid-19 positives, the close contacts reported negative to novel coronavirus, whereas in the instances of new cases, especially Bomikhal and Suryanagar, close contacts were detected as Covid-19 positives.

It's this change that might have alarmed the State government to invoke such an extreme strategy to prevent widespread local transmission.