COVID Comfort for Odisha: Doubling rate gets longer in State!

Bhubaneswar: Displaying another largest single-day spurt in Odisha after April 5, the State on Monday has detected as many as 13 COVID positive cases in a span of 24 hours.

Despite the second such single day spike in April, there seems to be some signs of comfort in State's rising COVID numbers. The revelation is doubling rate in Odisha gets longer this time, which gives hope amid despair.

Odisha Buys Time from COVID

The doubling rate of COVID -19 cases show Odisha has managed to buy time from the coronavirus, so as to plan its battle quite effectively. COVID hospital have sprouted across the State quite fast. Health human resources have been trained well and armed too with essentials like PPE and N-95 masks etc.

A look at the progression of COVID-19 cases in Odisha gives the clue. From April 1 -6, cases of novel cornavirus in the State grew quite exponentially. 

Odisha had mere four COVID-19 cases on March 31. In a span of three days, cases grew by five times to 20 on April 3. Later, the count of 20 doubled to 40 (on April 6) in just 3 days time.

Since lockdown was imposed across the State from March 23, the impact was discernible after a fortnight. And the exponential growth meandered down. The count of 40 is yet to double to 80, even after a fortnight. The positive cases as on today in the State stand at 74.

However, a slower growth rate of COVID cases cannot be considered an insurance against the COVID-19 challenges. Because, reporting of cases even during lockdown period hold the risk of exploding once the embargo on movement is lifted.

Time seemingly is not on Odisha's side. Lockdown days are numbered. The State has not even 14-days in its hand, as the Lockdown 2.0 will end on May 3.   

Why April see a COVID Spike?

The numbers are simply overwhelming. Odisha saw a 1,750 per cent rise in COVID-19 cases till date in April. In tandem, it has been observed that Odisha has conducted a massive 10,031 tests during the period April 1- 19. Sample testing in the State during April has grown by a whopping 1,669 per cent.

History of COVID -19 across the world shows that higher detection of COVID-19 cases are directly proportional to more number of tests done. The pattern is discernible in Odisha too. Large scale sample testing at the rate of 528 samples a day is seen as the ostensible reason behind large spike of COVID cases in Odisha  during the month of April.

The bottomline here is as the State has decided to scale up the tests in days to come, the COVID-19 count in Odisha will maintain a dynamism.