Odisha registered a three-digit jump in a single day by adding 101 new COVID-19 positive cases on Wednesday, taking its total to 538, the State Health & Family Welfare Department said.
The number of cases in the State has increased by more than two times in less than one week with many Odia people who returned from Gujarat and other States testing positive for the pandemic.
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Out of the new cases, 52 were detected in Ganjam district, 33 in Balasore district, seven each in Jajpur and Sundargarh districts, and two in Keonjhar district.
While 90 of the 101 cases were detected in the temporary medical centres at the gram panchayat level, eight surfaced in containment zones and three in other places, the Health Department said.
Of the total 538 cases, 419 persons were admitted in different exclusive COVID-19 hospital, while 116 recovered and three died.
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Twenty-one of the total 30 districts of Odisha have reported positive cases so far with six districts accounting for majority of cases.
210 cases in Ganjam
While Ganjam has reported the highest number of 210 cases, Balasore reported 90 followed by Jajpur with 71, Bhubaneswar under Khordha district with 50, Bhadrak 31 and Angul district 15 cases.
A vast majority of cases reported during the past one week were among people who returned from Gujarat’s Surat. The returnees were living in temporary medical centres at the gram panchayat level for quarantine and testing.
On Wednesday, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik ordered augmenting the capacity of temporary medical centres set up for quarantine of the thousands of Odia migrant workers returning from other States.
He has also ordered the increasing of the number of beds at the COVID-19 care centres in migration-prone districts of Ganjam, Balasore, Kendrapara, Bhadrak, Jajpur and Balangir.
A total of 76,234 Odia people had returned by Wednesday and more were arriving by trains, buses and some were walking or cycling.
As many as 14,647 temporary medical centres have been set up at 6798 gram panchayats with 5,82,941 beds. The State government is expecting the return of about five lakh migrant Odia workers in the coming weeks.