Patient in Odisha declared COVID positive, 15 days after death

CUTTACK: In yet another instance of the mess that the testing system for coronavirus is in the State, a patient from Niali of Cuttack district was declared Covid-19 positive, 15 days after his death.

The 51-year-old patient of Barbodia village was working as a home guard in Niali police station. After suffering from fever for few days, he had undergone Covid test at Capital Hospital in Bhubaneswar on September 15. After giving his swab sample, he had returned home.

The next day, his health condition deteriorated and he died on the way to hospital. His body was handed over to his family members after an autopsy at SCB Medical College and Hospital here. 

Sources said the home guard’s body was taken to Niali police station where the Sadar SDPO and police personnel had paid floral tribute to him. His body was cremated at the village crematorium.

On October 2, his family members were taken by a big surprise when they received the test report where he had tested positive for the virus. By that time, several people including 10 personnel of Niali police station had already been infected by the virus.  

Expressing discontentment over the gross irregularities in Covid test, locals, however, have urged the administration to consider Das as a Covid warrior and provide financial assistance to the bereaved family.

They said the delay in obtaining test results is causing anxiety and stress among those undergoing hospital and home quarantine.

Bhubaneswar sees rise in positivity rate

The State Capital has witnessed around two per cent (pc) rise in the Covid positivity rate in the last two days.  As per Government statistics, the daily case positivity rate that remained around seven pc between October 9 and 11 has increased to nine pc on Monday and Tuesday.  

Interestingly, there was a drop in number of tests done on these two days. More than 4,000 tests were conducted between October 9 and 11, while it remained only 2,574 with a positivity rate of 10.5 pc on Monday and 3,503 with positivity rate of 8.21 pc on Tuesday.

The total number of tests in the city, meanwhile, has crossed three lakh mark. BMC officials said 281 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours, pushing the tally to 26,016.