BHUBANESWAR: After a high spike of cases for consecutive two days, the State registered 48 Covid-19 positives in the last 24 hours. With this, the total number of cases reached 672. The new cases have been reported from nine districts.

While worst-hit Ganjam and Balasore districts recorded 12 cases each and Puri added 10 more, six were detected from Bhadrak, three from Nayagarh, two from Jajpur and one each from Cuttack, Deogarh and Sundargarh. All the cases from Ganjam, Puri, Jajpur, Nayagarh and two cases from Balasore are Surat returnees.

The affected persons in Cuttack, Sundargarh, and Deogarh had returned from Ahmedabad whereas seven from Balasore and all six from Bhadrak are West Bengal returnees. Sources said one youth from Balasore town, who works with a catering agency in New Delhi and had returned before the lockdown, has tested positive. One Maharashtra returnee has also diagnosed with the disease.

One of the close contact of Patient No. 61, the district’s first case, also has tested positive more than three weeks after she was found to be negative. “Her samples were collected after she developed symptoms and informed the health officials,” the source informed.  

Although migrants returning from Gujarat, West Bengal and Maharashtra keep fueling the number of positive cases, they are lodged in quarantine centres. With the new cases, the number of total cases in Ganjam rose to 264 and that of Balasore jumped to 102.

As many as 165 persons including eight (four from Jajpur, two from Bhadrak and one each from Balasore and Keonjhar) have recovered. Chief spokesperson Subroto Bagchi said all the 20 children have been cured of Covid-19 in the State.