BHUBANESWAR: THE Covid-19 nightmare continues in Odisha with 11 more patients including a year-old boy succumbing to the deadly virus in the last 24 hours taking the death toll to 269. With an average of 11 deaths a day, the State recorded 44 fatalities in last four days. The infection tally climbed close to 40,000 after 1,337 new cases were detected from 28 of the 30 districts. On the positive side, the number of recoveries crossed 25,000 mark after 1,255 patients from 25 districts were discharged.

According to the Health and Family Welfare department, the deceased included two women, aged 52 and 60 from Ganjam and Khurda respectively. Of the 11 deaths, nine persons including five from Ganjam and one each from Sundargarh, Keonjhar, Gajapati and Khurda succumbed to novel coronavirus. However, the rest two have been categorised as non-Covid deaths. While the oneyear- old child of Cuttack district succ u m b e d t o gastrointestinal hemorrhage, hemolytic anemia and sepsis, a 54-yearold man of Malkangiri district died due to chronic kidney dise a s e w i t h u r e m i c encephalopathy. An assistant sub-inspector of police of Tarsingi police station, Executive Officer of Aska NAC and section officer of Jagannathprasad block office were among the deceased from Ganjam who fell victims to Covid-19. The State Government has attributed 225 deaths to Covid- 19 and 44 to other underlying diseases.

Of the fresh 1337 cases, 815 were in quarantine and 522 local contacts. Ganjam, Khurda and Cuttack continued to report maximum cases with 201, 196 and 168 cases respectively. Though the infection is on a decline in Ganjam, the rate is rising in the urban pockets of Khurda and Cuttack. Detection of cases from new areas in the less affected districts has become a cause of concern as despite strict measures and repeated appeals people flout safety protocols. Worst-hit Ganjam topped the list both in number of cases and fatality with 11,812 confirmed cases and 117 deaths respectively. Khurda reported 5,311 positive cases and 31 deaths. With this, the State tally soared to 39,018. After 25,737 recoveries, the number of active cases stood at 13,011.