Bhubaneswar: The COVID scenario in Odisha didn't show any let up in the first week of May, in comparison to April first week. The COVID positive cases per million in the State was mere 0.93 then, the rate has nearly quadrupled to 4.03 in May first week.
What seems bothering is, April first week was preceded by mere 10-days of lock down; whereas the first week of May was preceded by a 33-day lockdown.
Even, during the last nine days, the confirmed COVID positive cases per million have risen by 1.6 times from 2.5 per million on April 27. In April first week, only two districts had COVID footprints. In May first week, the footprints of n-CoV are seen in as many 15 new districts.
In Odisha's COVID management, while the State government quite successfully contained the case spread in the capital city of Bhubaneswar, the containment strategy seems to have met with little success in Jajpur. Among all the COVID hotspots in the State, Jajpur has emerged as the sore spot as on today.
Sample this. The capital city has reported 47 cases in nearly 45 days. But the COVID count in Jajpur touched 52 in just 30-days time. Moreover, the average hospital stay of COVID positives in the capital city has been estimated at around 9-days. But the average hospital stay of patients in Jajpur is estimated at around 7-21 days.
When the capital city saw 31 recoveries in nearly 52-days, the recovery in Jajpur stood at mere 1 in 33-days.
The result: Jajpur alone now accounts for a whopping 44 per cent of the State's total active cases of 122 as on today.
However, as on May 6, the cases per million in Jajpur stood at 30 vis-a-vis 43 per million in Bhubaneswar. The State average is mere 4.03 per million. This numerical illustration shows how the State's COVID burden is majorly shouldered by two COVID spots in the State.
But the worry is Bhubaneswar has not reported any new case since April 28; whereas Jajpur recorded 2 new cases today. Moreover, during the last 30-days, the State Capital could report only 15 cases. In contrast, Jajpur reported 54 confirmed positive cases in last 30-days.
When Jajpur has emerged as the sore spot of State government, another district that has the potential to give migraine to the State administration is Ganjam - the largest populated district.
As per Ganjam district administration reports, nearly 2 lakh migrant workers have registered themselves in State government's COVID portal. And the new turn of event is the district has reported 4 positive cases - almost at the rate of a case a day since May 2.
The significant pointer here is Jajpur took 17 long days to record first surge of COVID cases.