Bhubaneswar: Amid heightened fears that coronavirus cases will surge after the onset of the winter especially with the lifting of major curbs, experts have predicted that people's haphazard response to the crisis may possibly worsen the pandemic situation in the State. After registering a record-low daily positives (in last 2 months) on Tuesday, Odisha again witnessed an uptrend with detection of 1474 new Covid cases in the last 24 hours. The surge has pushed the virus tally in the State to 295889.
Of the fresh cases, 855 are from quarantine while 619 cases are local contacts. Three districts have registered 100 or more cases. Khordha district tops the tally with 175 daily cases, followed by Cuttack (120), Sundargarh (104), Bolangir (89), Balasore (78), Angul (76) and Puri (73), which indicates that cases are not declining.
The death toll has climbed to 1364 as 12 more patients succumbed to the virus during the period. While three deaths each have been reported from Malkangiri and Mayurbhanj, 2 Covid patients succumbed in the capital city of Bhubaneswar. Jharsuguda, Jajpur, Keonjhar and Rayagada districts reported one death each.
The active caseload stands at 13919 while so far 280553 persons have recuperated from the disease in the State. As many as 48974 RT-PCR, antigen and TrueNat-based tests were conducted in the last 24 hours taking the cumulative tests to 4736246 in Odisha.