175 fresh COVID-19 cases in Odisha; count rises to 4,338

As many as 175 more people, including 21 disaster response personnel, have tested positive for COVID-19 in Odisha, taking state's tally to 4,338, a health department official said on Wednesday.

Of 175 fresh cases, 145 were reported from different quarantine centres where people returning from or states are housed, while remaining 30 infections were found during contact tracing, he said.

new cases include 21 personnel of Odisha Police Fire Service. y were placed under institutional quarantine upon ir return from West Bengal, where y were sent for restoration work following cyclone Amphan, official said.

With this development, number of disaster response personnel infected with disease has increased to 195. As many as 174 personnel of NDRF, ODRAF and Fire Service had earlier tested positive for COVID-19 in different phases, he said.

Of 4,338 cases, 1,350 are active, while 2,974 people have recovered. Eleven persons have died of disease so far while three patients have died due to or ailments, official said.

districts of Gajapati (57), Khurda (25), Puri (18) and Bargarh (11) reported most of fresh cases, he said.

number of COVID-19 cases in Gajapati district, adjoining coronavirus hotspot Ganjam, has increased to 165.

Half of 30 districts in state have reported more than 100 cases each, of which four have registered more than 300 cases each -- Ganjam (698), Cuttack (520), Khurda (374) and Jajpur (341).

Odisha has tested 2,08,472 samples for COVID-19 so far, including 2,971 on Tuesday, official added.