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 the infection, while two fresh fatalities took the death toll to 1,887, a health department official said.

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

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

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

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

Seven districts -- Dhenkanal, Deogarh, Gajapati, Kandhamal, Koraput, Malkangiri and Rayagada -- did not 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 the state's caseload.

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

The state's positivity rate now stands at 4.69 per cent, the official said.

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

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

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

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

However, Mohapatra said, the 30 government run COVID- 19 Hospitals will be strengthened 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 Aditya Aswini Hospital in Bhubaneswar. These two hospitals will function till January 31, 2021.