As Durga Puja festivities reach fever pitch, the increase in public activities has pushed the Covid infection graph slightly which has been evident from the daily positive cases reported in the State of late.
State Health authorities are of the view that carelessness and blatant violation of the curbs enforced by the administration has further spiked the infections during the festive period in Bhubaneswar, which alone accounts for the lion's share of State's cases, more than anywhere else.
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As per the government data, Odisha has recorded 615 cases in the last 24 hours including 323 from Khordha alone on October 13.
On October 7, Odisha recorded 582 cases including 282 from Khordha (276 in Bhubaneswar), 524 cases on October 8 including 250 from Khordha (233 in Bhubaneswar), 527 cases on October 9 including 233 from Khordha (216 in Bhubaneswar), 625 cases on October 10 including 331 from Khordha (159 in Bhubaneswar), 448 cases on October 11 including 208 from Khordha (159 in Bhubaneswar), 529 cases on October 12 including 274 from Khordha (234 in Bhubaneswar)
Chief of the Directorate of Medical Education and Training (DMET) CBK Mohanty suggested that any further upsurge in the positivity graph might pose problems for people and the administration in the State.
Due to high floating population, caseload remains high in both Cuttack and Bhubaneswar during the festive season. After careful consideration of test positivity and active cases, Khordha district has been categorised as Covid Red zone, said Mohanty.
The top health official also mentioned that despite the promulgation of night curfew from 8 pm in the Twin Cities, people are been seen violating (no) movement orders, mask usage and social distancing.
Meanwhile, State Health Services Director Bijay Mohapatra said that the Odisha government is fully prepared to begin vaccination of 2 to 18 year olds as and when the Centre commences rollout of the Covaxin.