Odisha logs 198 new COVID-19 cases, 2 more deaths

Odisha's COVID-19 tally on Tuesday mounted to 3,30,690 as 198 more people tested positive for infection, while two fresh fatalities took death toll to 1,887, a health department official said.

state also registered recovery of 271 patients taking total number of COVID-19 cured persons to 3,26,778, which is 98.81 per cent of caselo.

state's case fatality ratio (CFR) w stands at 0.57 per cent, he said.

Of 198 new cases, 115 were reported from various quarantine centres, and rest detected during contact tracing, official said.

Angul district recorded maximum number of new cases at 34, followed by Sundargarh (23), and Keonjhar (19).

Seven districts -- Dhenkanal, Deogarh, Gajapati, Kandhamal, Koraput, Malkangiri and Rayaga -- did t report any new case since Monday.

Two fresh fatalities were reported from Sambalpur and Sundergarh districts.

Odisha currently has 1,972 active cases, which is 0.59 per cent of state's caselo.

Apart from 1,887 people succumbing to infection, 53 COVID-19 patients in state have died due to comorbidities.

state's positivity rate w stands at 4.69 per cent, official said.

As many as 70.44 lakh samples have been tested for COVID-19 so far, including 15,910 on Monday, he ded.

Meanwhile, in a letter to all district collectors, commissioners of municipal corporations, ditional Chief Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, P K Mohapatra said that authorities will ensure visits to schools to conduct weekly health check-ups of students, teachers and n- teaching staff as educational institutions across state re-opens on January 6 and January 11.

health check-ups in schools is a precautionary measure, Mohapatra said, ding that rapid response teams (RRTs) will be kept in reiness to attend to any urgent call for providing services to schools.

In ar development, H&FW department also informed all district collectors, commissioners of municipal corporations on governments decision to de-hire of beds of all private mand COVID-19 hospitals in view of declining trend of COVID-19 cases.

However, Mohapatra said, 30 government run COVID- 19 Hospitals will be strengned with appropriate equipment and manpower. Thirty-one private COVID-19 Hospitals will be de-hired from January 1, 2021 except SUM COVID-19 Hospital and itya Aswini Hospital in Bhubaneswar. se two hospitals will function till January 31, 2021.