State added more than 69% positive cases in August

Bhubaneswar: The month of August saw the state registering 71,659 positive cases, more than 69% of the total infections, which rose to 1,03,536 with another 2,602 people testing positive on Monday. The month also witnessed the most number of deaths – 315 out of the total 492 – as 10 more succumbed to the virus on the day. The government feels new cases may continue to rise till mid-September before it starts falling.
Agriculture and farmers’ empowerment minister Arun Sahoo is among those who tested positive for the virus, the second minister in Naveen Patnaik’s cabinet after rural development minister Susanta Singh.
A central team is likely visit the state soon to assist the government “in strengthening containment, surveillance, testing and efficient clinical management,” a central government statement said. Similar teams by the Union health and family welfare ministry would also visit the states of Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.
“These states are seeing a sudden surge in the number of Covid cases and some of them are also reporting high mortality. The teams will support the state efforts. They shall also guide the states in effectively managing the challenges related to timely diagnosis and follow up,” the central government statement said.
Each of the multi-sectoral teams will comprise of an epidemiologist and a public health expert. Among the four states, Uttar Pradesh has the maximum active cases at 54,666, followed by Odisha, Chhattisgarh (13,520) and Jharkhand (11,577).
Khurda continues to be the headache for Odisha, reporting the highest number of positive cases for more than a week. It added 616 new cases in the last 24 hours, out of which 404 are from Bhubaneswar alone.
Cuttack district also reported 236 new positive cases. Khurda and Cuttack now account for 9,901 active positive cases, one-third of the total 29,758 active cases in the state. Ganjam (190), Kendrapada (128), Koraput (127), Balasore and Jajpur (103 each) reported more than 100 positive cases each.
Among the deceased include three men aged 42, 43 and 58 years from Kandhamal. Two women, both aged 60 years, died in Khurda. Besides one man each died in Bhubaneswar (56 years), Ganjam (48), Nayagarh (73), Rayagada (54) and Sundargarh (71).
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