Odisha: Coronavirus grows faster, 1784 new cases

BHUBANESWAR: The new Covid-19 infections flared up sharply in Odisha as 1,784 people tested positive and two succumbed to the disease in last 24 hours. Nuapada, Sundargarh, Khurda and Sambalpur continued to remain areas of concern with high test positivity rate.

As many as 1,035 new cases were detected among people in quarantine and 749 were local infections. Four districts recorded more than 100 cases each with Nuapada reporting the maximum 303 new cases, followed by Sundargarh (241), Khurda (201) and Sambalpur (114). The four districts contributed 48 per cent (pc) of the daily count.

Eight districts bordering Chhattisgarh registered 787 cases accounting for over 44 pc of the caseload. According to the State dashboard, 91 cases were detected in Balangir, 87 cases in Bargarh, 80 in Ganjam, 72 in Balasore, 68 in Kalahandi, 67 in Nabarangpur, 59 in Cuttack, 54 in Keonjhar and 53 in Puri. 

One of the parameters of transmission, referred to as R (reproduction number) suggested the pandemic might be growing faster in Odisha. The R value has jumped from 1.3 in mid-March to 2.14 now in the State and is above the national average of 1.56.

As per the daily new cases of the last two weeks, the effective reproduction number for Odisha is among 10 states where R is more than two. Bihar has the highest 3.01, followed by 2.81 in Uttar Pradesh, 2.48 in Assam, 2.32 in Jharkhand, 2.16 in Rajasthan and 2.15 in Chhattisgarh. 

“An R-value above one, even by a fraction, means the infection can snowball. The outbreak may subside if the value is less than one. The R is on the rise constantly,” said Prof Sitabhra Sinha, a researcher of Chennai-based Institute of Mathematical Sciences (IMSc), 

The State reported two fatalities, one each from Bhadrak and Balangir districts taking the death toll to 1,930. The new cases also pushed the tally to 3,53,086 of which 3,41,123 have recovered. The active cases soared to 9,980.

Chief Secretary SC Mohapatra and Additional Chief Secretary of Health PK Mohapatra will visit worst hit Sundargarh and Sambalpur districts on Wednesday to review Covid preparedness and manpower deployment to deal with rising caseload. 

Meanwhile, the State government has issued an SOP for shifting of critical Covid patients to cluster-level hospitals having better facilities and avoid overcrowding of patients. 

Mohapatra said the districts have been divided into 12 clusters and two to three districts each have been tagged. “They have been asked to use ambulances with advanced life support (ALS) or at least basic life support, in case ALS is not available. Focus should be on to avoid morbidity and mortality associated with transportation of patients,” he added.