State reports 17 fresh Covid cases, highest in 134 days

Bhubaneswar: The state on Friday reported 17 new Covid infections, highest in 134 days with one needing hospitalisation, thus taking the state’s active caseload to 73.
The state has been testing more than 5,000 samples daily ever since the daily Covid count shot to double digits. Health experts, however, have flagged no serious concern as they say almost all cases of infections will be self-limiting in nature and will not lead to severe complications.
Niranjan Mishra, director of public health, said the exact nature of illness and severity of the patient admitted to hospital is not known, but he is stable.
“We have increased the testing number to put more people under surveillance. The Covid pandemic has not gone. In some mutated form the virus will keep affecting us but there is no need to panic. However, any medication should be under a doctor’s supervision,” he advised.
Health officials said symptomatic people are getting the test done to rule out if they have Covid or H3N2 infection. Since symptoms more or less are same, Covid testing has increased.
Doctors said many people are now complaining of mild to severe body ache, runny nose with some stiffness and sneezing. Some have mild to high fever as well. “People are taking paracetamol mostly from over the counter consulting doctors in mild cases. But they should visit doctors before taking any medicine,” said Dr Sampat Dash, a senior pulmonologist.
Dr Jayant Panda, professor of medicine, SCB Medical College and Hospital, who was earlier the government’s technical adviser on Covid-19 said, “There is cocktail of viruses affecting people, including influenza A and B and adenovirus.”