BHUBANESWAR: Twenty-three more COVID-19 cases were reported in Odisha on Tuesday, pushing the state's overall tally to 437. Fifteen of the new cases were reported from Balasore, three each from Ganjam and Jajpur and one each from Boudh and Puri.

Of the 15 cases detected in Balasore, 13 are Surat returnees, while one has returned from West Bengal. The three each from Jajpur and Ganjam and the people affected in Boudh and Puri have also returned from Surat.

With this, the number of cases rose to 57 in Balasore, 157 in Ganjam, 64 in Jajpur, five in Boudh and four in Puri.

Health and Family Welfare department sources said the state has recorded as many as 46 cases in the last 24 hours of which 42 are from quarantine centres.

Among them, 38, including 21 in Ganjam and 13 in Balasore, are linked to Surat and four are attributed to West Bengal. Two cases in Sundargarh are from the Rourkela containment zone.

“While the affected people have been sent to COVID-19 hospitals from the quarantine centres and the containment zone, tracing of contacts and travel history is on for the others,” said a health official.

The number of active cases in the state now stands at 349, with 84 people having recovered and been discharged from hospitals. Three people have succumbed to the disease so far.

Meanwhile, after a series of training and capacity building programmes for health workers in Odisha, the state government has started conducting mock drills to test the preparedness at COVID-19 hospitals and care centres.