Khurda 12th among country’s worst-hit districts with 10 lakh population
BHUBANESWAR: Khurda is the 12th worst-affected district in the country in terms of Covid-19 cases per 10 lakh population. Though the total caseload in the district is close to 40,000, cases per 10 lakh population is 17,609. Pune tops this list with 31,635 cases.
Khurda, which leads the state in the number of people infected, has 17.43% of Odisha’s total cases of 2,29,387. Capital Bhubaneswar, which is part of Khurda, has 60% share of the district’s cases. In the past week (September 26 to October 2), Khurda has added 4,000 cases, 600 on a daily basis, out of which Bhubaneswar was reporting a little over 350 cases on an average daily.
Khurda collector Sanat Kumar Mohanty claimed they are testing 1,200 samples daily in the district (barring Bhubaneswar) and the positivity rate has declined. “Many from outside the state are getting tested here and they are part of the state pool. But it is getting reflected in Khurda’s figures. So, the test positivity rate is still 10%, which was 20-25% earlier,” Mohanty said.
He claimed that Khurda (barring Bhubaneswar and rural pockets) has been reporting high number of cases due to lack of Covid compliance by people. “Now that labourers from outside the district have started coming and markets and hotels are fully operational, cases are bound to rise. But we hope that after October 15 it will start to flatten,” he added.
Infections in state capital on decline
On September 26, the district reported the highest 902 cases. On Saturday, Khurda reported 561 cases.
Khurda surpassed Ganjam a month ago and is far ahead of neighbour Cuttack, which has the second highest caseload in the state. Cuttack has so far reported 21,505 positive cases, a little more than half of Khurda’s count.
Ajay Parida, director, Institute of Life Sciences (ILS) said once cases in Bhubaneswar starts declining, the situation in Khurda, too, will stabilise.
“The cases in Bhubaneswar are on the decline but it is fluctuating a bit. However, the situation is not alarming as most of the cases are still asymptomatic. Khurda can now focus on shifting of critical cases from home isolation to the hospital so that fatality rate can be controlled,” Parida said.
The state capital has so far reported 22,876 positive cases since the pandemic started. With 19,255 recoveries and 100 deaths, the city now has 3,502 active cases.