As many as eight new COVID-19 cases were detected on Monday taking Odisha’s total to 111. While 72 of them are under treatment, 37 have recovered and one has died so far.
Six of the eight new cases were reported from Balasore while one was reported from Jajpur and one from Koraput, the first case in the district, according to the State government.
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The Koraput case pertained to a 22-year-old staff nurse who had come from Kolkata on April 14 to join duty. He was quarantined and tested due to travel history, the government said.
The districts of Balasore, Bhadrak and Jajpur, which are adjacent and close to West Bengal, have emerged as the second COVID-19 hotspots. While 16 cases each have been reported from Balasore and Bhadrak, 19 have been detected in Jajpur.
Interactive map of confirmed coronavirus cases in India
In fact, 46 cases have been reported from this cluster during the past nine days. They include those who recently returned from West Bengal and their close contacts. Bhubaneswar was the first hotspot that reported 46 cases by April 14. The city has not reported any new case since then.
With the number of cases rising in the cluster, the State government had ordered a 60-hour-long shutdown from 10 p.m. on Thursday to contain the spread of the pandemic. Though the shutdown ended on Sunday morning, several areas in Jajpur and Balasore districts were declared containment zones following the detection of new cases.
What has added to the administration’s worry is that a majority of people testing positive were asymptomatic and some of them were found positive after completion of their 14-day quarantine.
A 50-year-old man of Jajpur district, who returned from West Bengal on March 29, had stayed in home quarantine till April 11. He was asymptomatic and stayed at home after quarantine. But he was found positive on April 25 when his sample was tested due to travel history, according to the government.
Briefing journalists on Monday, State government’s chief spokesperson for COVID-19 Subroto Bagchi said about 80% of those tested positive so far were asymptomatic. He said 25,103 samples had been tested by midnight on Sunday.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik announced ₹15 lakh compassionate assistance to families of working journalists who may lose life to the infection. The journalists are dedicatedly working to raise awareness about the pandemic during this difficult time, he said.
