Odisha on Saturday reported close to 30% of total fresh infections from the community, indicating a deterioration in the COVID-19 situation in the State.
Worried over apprehension of community transmission, local administrations have started controlling intra-district movements and emphasised on isolation for persons coming from high infection districts.
As many as 495 new coronavirus cases were detected during the past 24 hours, taking the State’s total to 8601. Among fresh cases, 355 were from quarantine centres while 140 were from the community, accounting for 28.28%.
On Friday, as many as 136 of 561 COVID-19 positive cases were identified as local. Similarly, in the first two days of July, around 80 local cases were detected from outside quarantine centres.
Ganjam again emerged as the worst-affected district, reporting 216 cases — over 200 in consecutive days. The tally in the district alone has crossed the 2,000 mark. Keeping in mind the worsening situation in the southern district, the State government on Saturday appointed two IAS officers as additional district magistrates for two subdivisions of Ganjam.
For the first time, the State reported five COVID-19 deaths in a single day, the sharpest jump so far. The toll rose to 34, while nine deaths were attributed to reasons other than COVID-19.
As COVID-19 was found to be spreading faster than previous weeks, Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation had made institutional quarantine mandatory for people coming from Ganjam, Cuttack, Balasore, Gajapati and Jajpur district. Now, Sundargarh district has asked people coming from 13 districts having higher incidences of infection to undergo institutional quarantine.
Similarly, 19 of 30 districts have decided to enforce weekend shutdowns, while containment zones have come up across the States.
Published - July 04, 2020 02:17 pm IST
