If a Covid-19 positive patient does not complain fever for three consecutive days during the seven days quarantine period, then the isolation will be deemed as complete, said Odisha Public Health Director Niranjan Mishra on Saturday.
Briefing about the present Covid-19 situation in the State, Mishra said, “During the early days of pandemic, the incubation period of SARS-CoV-2 was detected as 14 days and a positive person had the potential to infect another person within 10 days of incubation.”
“But, recent scientific studies have now found the transmission capacity of the virus has reduced to around five to six days. So, we have reduced the isolation period to one week. However, the patient needs to remain under self-observation for another seven days,” Mishra added.
In case fever sets in on sixth or seventh day, the patient should seek doctor's advice and extend home isolation period, the top health official informed.
“If a Covid infected person’s family has only one toilet, then the infected person should use the toilet after everyone in the family uses it. And, toilet should be sanitised using bleaching powder and sanitiser after the infected person uses it,” the he stated.
Notably for the second consecutive day, the daily Covid-19 tally in Odisha dropped below the 10,000 mark on Saturday with the State reporting 8,845 new cases of infection in the past 24 hours.
The I &PR department on Saturday informed that out of the 8845 new Covid-19 cases, 972 were from the 0-18 years age group.
Khordha district topped the chart with 2528 new cases of Covid-19, followed by 1001 cases from Sundergarh district, Cuttack (628), Mayurbhanj (152) and Nayagarh reported 194 new Covid-19 cases.