Odisha coronavirus cases rise to 54 but high recovery rate encouraging

BHUBANESWAR: Odisha on Saturday recorded four new COVID-19 positive cases taking the tally to 54 in the State. With 12 recovered and one dead, the number of active cases is 41.

Meanwhile, in what could be a heartening sign for the medical fraternity and the Government, the State has recorded a significantly high rate of recovery, and that too within a very short span of time.

Of 54 positive cases detected so far, 12 have recovered. While two were discharged earlier, 10 more patients including five from Bhubaneswar, two from Bhadrak and one each from Cuttack, Jajpur and Puri tested negative twice in the last 24 hours. All the 10 had been detected with the virus infection in early April.    

Director of National Health Mission (NHM) Shalini Pandit said patients those who have recovered were asymptomatic even after they tested positive and were cured within five to 10 days of treatment.

“Of the 37 active cases till Friday, only two need hospital care and the rest 35 are asymptomatic and do not need hospital care. But, we have kept them under hospital isolation for their safety and to protect others in their community from getting infected. We hope they will be discharged from the COVID hospitals shortly,” she said.    

While the highest 39 positive cases belong to Bhubaneswar, followed by three from Bhadrak, two from Kalahandi and one each from Cuttack, Jajpur, Puri, Kendrapara and Dhenkanal, one patient is from West Bengal.

Four families in Bhubaneswar account for around 70 per cent (pc) of the cases in the City. 

An analysis of the cases revealed, only eight pc (four cases) are above the age group of 60, which is the most vulnerable age group globally, 16 pc (eight) are between 0-14 years and 24 pc (12) and 52 pc (26) are in the age group of 41-60 years and 15-40 years respectively.  

“Most of the positive cases in the State have got infected from a primary case. There is no evidence of secondary infection as yet. Most of the positive cases have been found during active surveillance and contact tracing,” Pandit observed.   

The State Health department has also released details of two cases, a 35-year-old woman and 23-year-old man, who were detected on Friday. They were found to be close relatives Patient No. 41 of Madhusudan Nagar.

The woman had come in contact with the patient and she had visited Red Cross Bhavan area and Capital Hospital on April 4 and 6 respectively. Thereafter, she was in-home quarantine till testing positive.