Bhubaneswar breaks record of 45 cases in a day, sees count jump by 46
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BHUBANESWAR: In yet another highest single-day spike, the city on Wednesday reported 46 Covid-19 positive cases. It broke Saturday’s record of 45 cases.
Bhubaneswar now has 525 Covid cases. Out of the 46 fresh cases, more than 50 per cent are local infections. Twenty-four are local contacts and 22 are persons who were in quarantine.
Bomikhal and Jharpada, which were under containment, have reported a case each. The other areas that have reported positive cases are Aiginia, Chandrasekharpur, Pahala, Garage Chhak, Old Town, Rasulgarh, Baramunda, Laxmisagar, Nayapalli, Ghatikia, Kalinga Nagar, Kolathia, Patrapada, Khandagiri and Ganganagar. Out of the 525 cases, 206 have been reported between July 1 and 8.
BMC commissioner Prem Chandra Chaudhury said there was no plan to bring any more areas under containment as mostly one or two cases have been reported from them, with the exception of the RTO-I office which has reported four cases. “We don’t have plan for complete shutdown on other days besides the weekend shutdown. We are keeping a close watch on the situation and active surveillance is being carried out aggressively,” he told TOI.
On Wednesday, 18 patients recovered here, all in the age group of 15 and 60. The patients include four from Laxmi bazar slum. With 295 people recovering and seven deaths, there are now 223 active cases in the city.
Out of the 206 cases reported in July so far, 81 are local contacts. This is an indication that the virus has spread to other people from primary contacts. Local cases have been termed as secondary contacts, and they are suspected to have contracted the disease from the primary patients. In May and June, there were hardly any local cases.
“The first phase of unlock started in June, and we brought some more relaxations in July. Local cases are a worry but they will happen as people need to be more aware and alert,” said a BMC officer. In view of local cases being reported, serological test, which will start within two days in the city, will help gauge the volume of infectivity in the community.