No Time To Lower Guard Against COVID-19 Despite Cases Declining: ILS Director

Bhubaneswar: With the festive season and winter round the corner, people need to be extra cautious even though there has been a sharp decline in COVID-19 cases in Odisha, said Institute of Life Sciences (ILS) Director, Ajay Parida on Friday.

According to Parida, the instances of COVID-19 positive cases have come down to 5 % as the daily chart is showing a declining trend in the last 15 days.

“Odisha used to report 4000 plus new COVID-19 cases between September 10-11 and September 25. However, there is now a declining trend and the daily case load has come down considerably. Moreover, 2138 new COVID-19 cases were reported in the last 24 hours. This is the lowest daily spike of positives in over a month and half period,” said Parida.

Dismissing suggestions that the drop in daily case load was due to low testing, Parida said that the cumulative testing of 45,000 persons per day had come down to 40,000 - 42,000 due to the rains last week. However, Odisha has set a target to conduct 50,000 tests per day.

While talking to reporters, Parida further cautioned people not to lower their guards against Coronavirus especially as the festive season is round the corner.

“Coronavirus will stay and it will become like any other disease. People need not be complacent and follow the government guidelines including social distancing norms strictly. There is every likelihood that infections will go up as there will be a rise in cases of cold, cough and fever during winter,” Parida cautioned.

Also Read: Odisha Daily Coronavirus Cases Dip Further To 2138