The people who have recovered from COVID-19 outnumbered the active patients in Odisha for the first time on Wednesday.
The State’s recovery rate crossed 50%-mark when 79 more persons were discharged from hospitals, pushing the number of recoveries to 812.
The total number of positive cases stood at 1,593 with detection of 76 new cases in different districts. While 74 of the new cases were detected in quarantine centres, two were from the local community. According to the State Health & Family Welfare Department, the number of active cases stood at 774. Only seven have died of COVID-19 in the State so far, the fatality rate being negligible.
The State has been detecting more number of cases during the current month with many of the migrant workers returning from other States testing positive. In fact, 95% of the cases detected in the State were from quarantine centres set up at gram panchayat level for institutional quarantine of the returnees.
For the past several days, the number of recoveries was almost matching the number of new cases. Among the recovered were an 85-year-old woman with frail health and 20 children below 14 years of age.
Meanwhile, the State government decided to resume work on the Puri heritage corridor project and Ekamra Kshetra project in Bhubaneswar by maintaining social distancing.