With many Odia migrant workers returning from other States testing positive for COVID-19, Odisha’s total number of cases increased to 978 with the detection of 102 new cases on Tuesday.
Of the 102 new cases, only five (two each from Bhubaneswar and Balasore, and one from Cuttack) were local cases, while the remaining 97 persons had returned from other States. All the returnees were at quarantine centres, the State government said.
The States from which the 97 persons had returned include Gujarat, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, according to officials.
Samples tested
The State government said that the number of samples tested in the State so far had crossed the one lakh mark. A total of 1,00,302 samples were tested by May 18 midnight, it said.
The government further said that of the 978 positive cases reported till Tuesday, 666 were active cases and 307 persons had been discharged after recovery. Five persons had died in the State. Besides, 866 persons were in hospital isolation.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik thanked everyone who worked expeditiously to scale up the State’s testing facilities within a short span of time and also those working to ensure logistics.
The government said that 15,773 Odia people returned to the State on Tuesday, taking the total number of returnees so far to 1,91,925. The returnees are being put under quarantine at the 15,685 temporary medical centres/camps set up in 6,798 gram panchayats of the State.
The State Commerce and Transport Department is also ensuring that migrant workers passing through the State are being safely transported to their border destination with the cooperation of different police stations, officials informed.