COVID-19 News Updates

The Orissa High Court on Wednesday announced to shut down its operations for five days till January 17 in view of the surge in cases of COVID among court staff.

As Odisha battles a new wave of the COVID pandemic, the State Special Relief Commissioner on Wednesday issued a slew of new guidelines for strict adherence by public during observance/celebration of religious festivals/ festivities/ functions/ rituals.

Briefing reporters about the current pandemic situation in the State, Director, Family Welfare and nodal officer for Covid vaccination, Dr Bijay Panigrahi informed that the vaccination rate is low in five districts of the State, including Gajapati, Sundargarh, Cuttack, Angul and Mayurbhanj.

Addressing a press conference, Joint Secretary in Health Ministry Lav Agarwal said a sharp rise in COVID-19 infections has been noted in India with the case positivity climbing to 11.05 per cent on Wednesday from 1.1 per cent on December 30.

Odisha today registered its highest one-day spike in the Covid cases in the last seven months detecting 8,778 infections, including 792 cases in the 0-18 years category in the past 24 hours.

The Omicron infection has spread to 28 States and UTs, as per the ministry.

Meanwhile, the Omicron infection tally has reached 4,868 across the nation.

US continues to be the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 62,308,132 and 842,141, according to the CSSE.

With this, the Covid-19 positive tally in the State has surged to 10,91,547 while a total of 10,47,783 people have recovered from the virus infection. The active cases have gone up to 35,242.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said that current Covid-19 vaccines may need to be updated if they are to provide continued protection against emerging variants, including Omicron.

The authorities of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Bhubaneswar on Wednesday issued a series of fresh protocols for care of patients visiting the premier hospital in the backdrop of the State witnessing a rapid rise in COVID-19 cases.

The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Tuesday directed all swimming pools operated by private entities in the State Capital city to immediately close down operations.

It is pertinent to mention here that Odisha reported 7,071 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, taking the active case load in the State to 27,216. For the past couple of weeks the State has been witnessing steep a surge in daily Covid cases.

According to Hans Kluge, WHO Europe Director, 26 countries in the region reported that more than 1 per cent of their populations are being infected with Covid each week, The Telegraph reported.

In the guidelines issued by the Special Relief Commissioner (SRC), it has been stated, “The State is now passing through a critical stage of Covid-19 pandemic due to resurgence of Covid-19 in some parts of the State and it is necessary to strictly adhere to Covid-19 safety protocols for containment of spread of the infection.”