BHUBANESWAR: Keeping pace with the national trend, the COVID-19 test positivity rate (TPR) fell below five per cent (pc) in Odisha after more than two months. The State recorded 3,031 new cases from 61,000 tests in last 24 hours bringing down the TPR to 4.96 per cent from 5.23 per cent a day before.
The last time the infection rate of less than five per cent (4.35 pc) was reported on April 10 when 1,379 people were found to be positive out of 31,651 samples tested. Of the 30 districts, the positivity rate in 18 districts has fallen below 5 per cent. The TPR is more than 10 per cent in three districts with Jajpur having the highest rate of 10.6 per cent followed by 10.1 per cent each in Khurda and Puri.
Health department sources said the new cases have declined significantly in western and southern Odisha as seven of the 15 districts have a positivity rate of below two per cent and the rest below five per cent.
The coastal districts have been fuelling the tally with Khurda registering the highest 381 fresh cases followed by Cuttack (295), Balasore (290), Jajpur (226), Puri (180) and Mayurbhanj (167). Eighteen districts reported less than 100 cases each.
With 4,587 more patients recovering on Monday, the active cases came down to 32,046. Twenty districts with less than 1,000 active cases each have turned green. With more than 2,500 cases each, four districts – Khurda (5,127), Cuttack (3,134), Jajpur (3,138) and Balasore (2,805) continue to be under the red zone.
However, there is no let up in fatalities as the disease claimed 43 more lives. The maximum seven deaths were reported from Khurda and five each from Bargarh and Cuttack taking the death toll to 3,633.
The health authorities claimed that the infection has dropped as expected and the cases will come down below 2,000 per day by the end of this month. The stress is now on to ramp up vaccination besides preparing for the third wave as anticipated.
Director of Public Health Dr Niranjan Mishra said everybody needs to be doubly cautious as it is difficult to ascertain the impact of the third wave now. Appealing to people not to lower the guard, he said efforts are being made to complete the vaccination of all age-appropriate people as soon as possible.
