Covid: 1,384 more test positive, Odisha total tops 37K

BHUBANESWAR: Nine doctors and another employee of VSS Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (VIMSAR), Sambalpur were among 1384 more tested positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday raising the total infected in state to 37,681. Nine patients died in past 24 hours, raising virus death toll to 216.
Official sources said two faculty members, three post graduate students and four interns of medicine department of VIMSAR have tested positive. Five doctors of the hospital had tested positive earlier. “We closed the afternoon OPD for the day and sanitized the department. We are evaluating whether we can run the OPD with the existing strength,” hospital director Lalit Meher said. Total 82 more people tested positive in Sambalpur district.
Worst-hit Ganjam continues to contribute the most to new positive cases and deaths. The highest 288 of the new positive cases and six of the nine deaths were reported from Ganjam. Five men aged 40, 46, 50, 60 and 75 and a woman aged 60 years died in the district raising the district death toll to 112. Among others, one man each died in Puri, Jajpur and Khurda. Another 66 year old man in Malkangiri district, who had tested Covid positive, died due to accelerated hypertension and left ventricular failure, taking number of deaths of Covid patients due to non-Covid reasons to 42.
Other districts reporting high number of positive cases include Khurda (201), Cuttack (121), Keonjhar (66) and Sundargarh (64). State capital Bhubaneswar added 149 new cases while Cuttack city saw 91 new positive cases.
Jayant Panda, government’s technical adviser on Covid-19, said at this stage of Pandemic numbers will rise. “But, let’s not get worried. More than 23,000 people have recovered. Our death rate is very low. The recovery rate will improve further,” he said.
Ajay Parida, director, Institute of Life Sciences, said hopefully the peak in state will come in August and by September things will improve. “The hope is from the fact that the numbers of cases are showing a stabilizing trend in past 10 days. There is no sharp increase even in Ganjam and Bhubaneswar,” he said.
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