Covid-19: West Bengal returnees lead to spike as 18 more test positive; Odisha total 143
BHUBANESWAR: The number of Covid-19 cases in Odisha shot up to 142 with 17 more people from Jajpur district – all of them either West Bengal returnees or their contacts – and one from Balasore testing positive for the virus, a health department update shows.
With this, the number of positive cases in Jajpur climbed to 36, next only to Khurda district (47) with Bhubaneswar accounting for all of them. Among those infected in Jajpur, 35 are linked to West Bengal while one person has a travel history to the Tablighi Jamaat in New Delhi. Among those testing positive are a couple of three-year-old children, besides eight men and seven women.
Nearly half the people affected — 70 out of 142 — in the state has travel history to West Bengal, making for worrying statistics. However, information and public relations secretary Sanjay Singh said the situation is under control.
“There is no reason to panic because all the 17 new cases are from one containment zone of Katikata village, under Dasarathapur block, where six persons with travel history to West Bengal were found positive earlier. The fresh cases are either those who had travelled to West Bengal or are close contacts such people. All 17 are asymptomatic,” said Singh.
“The containment zone has 269 families. Samples of 200 people have been collected and the process is on,” he added.
A health department statement said in view of the detection of positive cases in Jajpur district, a rapid response team has been sent for strengthening the surveillance activities and containment measures. “Similarly, two rapid response teams from AIIMS Bhubaneswar have been deputed in Balasore and Bhadrak districts, which have also reported a spurt in cases in the past few days, for strengthening surveillance and cluster containment activities,” the health department stated.
The number of active cases in Jajpur is now 35, the highest among the 30 districts. With 41 people recovering so far, the number of active cases across the state now stands at 101. Among the active cases in Odisha, only six have some symptoms of novel coronavirus. Shalini Pandit, mission director, National Health Mission, said Odisha’s positivity rate at 0.44% is among the lowest compared to the national average of 4.3%.
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