CoVID19 cases in Odisha will take some time to decline as infection has spread to rural areas. According to Health Expert, Dr Niraj Mishra, Odisha is in declining stage, but the rate of decline may not be as fast as Delhi as rural areas in the state have been affected. He also said that infection is spreading in rural areas due to marriages which are turning into super-spreader event.
Senior Health Expert,Niraj Mishra said, Now we have reached the decline stage and I feel that in another 2 months, the test positivity rate will drop below 5%. Once the test positivity rate is below 5%, we can start easing the restrictions. We are getting more cases from rural areas because marriages are becoming super-spreader events. In villages, people are not adhering to guidelines and gathering in marriages and functions and are not following any COVID-appropriate behaviour.
Our decline is not as fast as Delhi. The positivity rate in Delhi today is 1.4%. Their number of cases has come down from 29,000 to below 1,000. We may not witness such sharp decline because the infection has spread to villages. The decline will be slow. If we can vaccinate adequate number of people in 3 months then the impact of the third wave won’t be much.