Covid-19: Fresh cases and daily tests hit a new high in Odisha

BHUBANESWAR: In the highest single-day spike in Covid-19 cases, the state reported 2,924 cases in the past 24 hours, taking the number of cases to 60,050 on Sunday.
Ten more persons succumbed to the virus on Sunday and nine died on Saturday, taking the death toll due to Covid-19 to 343.
The state also crossed 50,000 daily tests. It carried out 52,975 tests on Saturday.
Chief minister Naveen Patnaik expressed happiness at the fact that the state tested over 50,000 samples on August 15, and referred to it as a milestone in the fight against Covid-19. The chief minister commended health professionals and Covid warriors for their relentless efforts to save lives.
With the rising number of tests, the positivity rate in the state has declined from 9.2% a month ago to 5.5% on Sunday. The state’s fatality rate continued to be among the lowest in the country, at 0.58%.
Experts attributed the rising cases to the high number of tests being carried out. “This indicates that there are a large number of asymptomatic Covid cases in the state and there is a need for Ganjam-like intervention to check the spread of infection,” said vice-chancellor of Siksha O Anusndhan University and former director of AIIMS-Bhubaneswar, Ashok Mohapatra.
Among the ten deceased, two each were from Bhubaneswar and Ganjam while one each was from Jajpur, Bhadrak, Sonepur, Kandhamal, Balangir and Cuttack. Two of the deceased had no underlying health complications. The others suffered from comorbidities like diabetes, hypertension, pulmonary tuberculosis and chronic kidney disease.
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