BHUBANESWAR: Amid the falling fresh infection count, altogether 1,220 more persons tested positive for the virus, taking the caseload to 3,05,000 on Wednesday. Fifteen more died of
Covid, taking the death toll to 1,469. The
positivity rate (percentage of
samples returning positive) for the day was 2.48% as the 1,220 positive cases came from among the 49,160 samples tested.
Additional chief secretary (health) Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra said the drop in new infections gives no leeway to become complacent as any lax has the potential to aggravate the situation. “Irrespective of the fall in new cases, the daily test level of around 50,000 samples will be maintained. There would be more tests in districts reporting higher percentage of positive cases.”
Government sources said chief minister Naveen Patnaik will review the situation once again next week, following which the government will prepare itself further for the projected needs of hospital infrastructure, manpower and curbs, if any, for December.
For now, the district administrations continue to reduce general beds in Covid hospitals, particularly those being run on public-private partnership mode. Similarly, in places having more than one Covid hospital, one is being shut gradually. The government has stopped admitting patients in the Sambalpur Covid Hospital, which was being run on the premises of the Sambalpur District Headquarters Hospital. Once the existing patients are discharged, it will be used for general patients.
The new Covid patients are being admitted in Vimsar Covid Hospital instead.