In a refreshing turnaround after deadly surge in infection in May, Odisha on Friday logged 5,235 new COVID-19 cases, lowest daily positive cases in the past fifty days, while the cumulative caseload rose to 8,42,461,. Besides, 43 fresh fatalities pushed the death toll to 3,210.
Today’s daily positive cases (5,235) were the lowest since 21 April, when the State had reported 4,851 daily infections.
The overall COVID-19 situation in the State is showing signs of stabilizing with steady drop in positive cases and positivity rate in June after the consistent clocking of 10,000 and above cases almost throughout May.
There has been a positive turnaround underlining the flattening of contagion’s curve in the State. The Test Positivity Rate (TPR) which hovered around 15 to 23 percent earlier last month has dropped below ten percent to reach ten per cent since last week. A total of 69,638 samples were tested in the last 24 hours at 7.51% TPR.
The number of active cases which crossed one lakh mark in May has climbed down to 66,226 as of now. Similarly the recovery rate has jumped to 91.75 percent with the daily recoveries surpassing the 24 hours’ COVID infections.
On 15 May, Odisha’s caseload had crossed the six lakh mark. On 1 May this year, the State had recorded over 10,000 fresh cases for the first time on a day since the beginning of the pandemic in March last year.
The disease graph is descending. However the complacency, carefree attitude and non adherence to COVID-19 protocol may prove counterproductive. The current month is quite crucial, said public health experts.
The current strain is deadly and exceedingly infectious. This was not the case in last year’s strain. Therefore, the tests should be further ramped up on priority basis to one lakh a day. In the 2nd wave, the highest numbers of tests of 71,000 were conducted last week. Unless the virus is fully checked, it will mutate in the coming days, making things altogether difficult to bring the covid situation under control. Unless the test positivity rate dips below five per cent, it will be a difficult proposition to keep the virus infection at bay, added the experts.
As many as 36,367 COVID-19 positive cases were reported in the last 7 days at a daily average of 5,195 cases in the State while 258 have succumbed to the infections during the past one week with daily average death of 27.