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 the state's tally to 4,338, a health department official said on Wednesday.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Half of the 30 districts in the 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, the official added.