Sanjeev Kumar Patro

Bhubaneswar: If health department officials in Odisha are to be believed, it is the Maharashtra impact that is triggering a rise in the count of the new confirmed coronavirus cases in Odisha. Be it quarantine or local contact cases, the source of transmission is mostly from Maharashtra.

"As per our analysis, the source state of coronavirus in Odisha is Maharashtra. The majority (nearly 80 per cent) of new cases detected in the State have direct or indirect contact with suspected or confirmed cases in Maharashtra," ACS (Health) Pradipta Mahapatra disclosed to odishatv. in.

Significantly, for the eighth-day on the trot, Odisha has recorded a rise in its active caseload of Covid-19. The active caseload, which is seemingly inching fast towards the 1000-mark, touched 861 with an addition of 31 more active cases today.

WILL ODISHA SEE MORE RESTRICTIONS?

The State government may bring in more restrictions to contain the rising coronagraph. The State Health Department data shows the contribution of local contact cases to the total Covid-19 count in the State has posted a sharp rise.

As per the analysis of the State Health Department data, the local contact coronavirus cases in the State is up by 2 per cent. As of today, Odisha reported 1,834 new Covid-19 cases and over 42 per cent have been local contact cases.

Significantly, in the month of February, the contribution of local contact cases to the total newly detected Covid-19 cases in Odisha stood at 40 per cent.

Since the rise in the State is fuelled by the local transmission of the virus, the State Health Department may roll out some containment measures, post a review meeting of CM Naveen Patnaik today.

What Is A Local Contact Case?

As per health experts in State Health and Family Welfare Department, the person has neither direct travel history to any source state nor has any direct contact with a suspected or confirmed case from the source state. Rather, the virus infection has been through indirect contact with cases having a travel history to Maharashtra.

"In the light of the recent epidemiological developments, there is a need for some containment measures to contain the local transmission of the virus," explained the senior health official.

WILL THE CASES RISE FURTHER?

A glance at the daily positive rate hints at the high likelihood of more cases in the coming days.

The total positive rate in the State has moved up from 0.3 per cent in the first week of March to 0.5 today. Odisha had been conducting around 20k tests in the first week of March, the total positive rate (TPR) then was around 0.3 per cent. As the tests are now hovering at around 22-25k, the TPR has risen to 0.5 per cent.

The rise in TPR in tandem with the increase in total tests shows that the transmission is quite active in the State.

HOW THE SCREENING WILL BE DONE NOW?

As per a senior health official, the solace for the State is only limited clusters have been identified in the State to date (2 in Cuttack and 1 in Bhubaneswar).

"Our plan is to go for screening of all within a 3km radius (focal area) of a positive case. And tests will be conducted only for those in the buffer area (5km) who have symptoms or ILI like conditions or pneumonia," he explained and further added that such a strategy will break the transmission chain leading to the containment of the localised outbreak.

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