Odisha's COVID worry lingers, 23 suspects identified in 48 hours!

Bhubaneswar: The COVID count in Odisha is yet to settle down. The State health department has identified as many 23 COVID-19 suspects during the last 48 hours. The tally of COVID-19 suspects in the State have risen to 44 now.

Sources say most of the identified suspects have a contact history with the earlier detected positives in the State. Among the identified suspects, males account for nearly 87 per cent. The State Health Department has launched an aggressive active surveillance campaign for the early detection of COVID positives in the State, especially in the potential hotspot districts.

Meanwhile, a big observation is pace of the COVID seems to have picked up in the State. The velocity is evident from the fact that Odisha took 23 long days to record 40 novel coronavirus positive cases, whereas it recorded the last 40 cases in mere 14 days.

[caption id="attachment_447369" align="alignnone" width="650"] Left: April 11- Cases at 54, Right: April 24- 94 cases[/caption]

Odisha reported its first COVID positive case on March 15. The State's COVID count touched 40 on April 6. In contrast, the number of novel coronavirus positive cases touched 94 on April 24 vis-a-vis 54 on April 11.

Amidst the pickup in momentum, the disconcerting fact emerges out today is two female and three male positives are in the ICU of COVID hospitals, informed top sources in the State Health Department. The age group of all positives in the ICU are 65 - 80 years.  

A glance at the positives detected in the state during the last fortnight shows that more males in the State were detected COVID positive than the females. For which, the COVID gender divide in the State now stood at 71:29 from 65:35 on April 11.

[caption id="attachment_447372" align="aligncenter" width="650"] Female proportion 29%, Male proportion at 71%[/caption]

As per the State Health department data, during the last fortnight a total of 18 COVID positive women were admitted to in the COVID hospitals across the State. Majority are under treatment in Ashwini Hospital at Cuttack and Tata Hospital in Jajpur.

Nationally, a total of 24 per cent of the females are Covid-19 positive, the proportion in Odisha stands higher at around 29 per cent. But the female COVID positive proportion in the State on April 11 was 35 per cent

Available data shows the proportion of male Covid-19 positives in the State now stood at around 71 per cent from 64 per cent a fortnight ago.

The above numbers clearly showed a rise in male positives in the State than females during the last fortnight.

The new female positives identified belong to the age-group of 50-60 years, 60 plus years and 30-40 years, respectively. The State has only two Covid-19 positives in the age-group of below 10-years.

The COVID positives in the age-group of 0-12 years in Odisha stood at four. The gender divide stood at 3 females to 1 male. The ratio in Odisha stood at 75:25 vis-a-vis the national share of 59:41.