BHUBANESWAR: The state’s 30 districts on Monday reported a test positivity rate (TPR) of below five per cent, while for 11 it was even lesser (below one per cent) with 1,637 fresh infections being recorded on the day.
The health department tested 74,553 samples in the last 24 hours, resulting in the TPR going down to 2.19%.
The 11 districts with less than one per cent TPR are Bargarh, Balangir, Ganjam, Jharsuguda, Kalahandi, Keonjhar, Koraput, Nabarangpur, Nayagarh, Sambalpur and Sonepur.
While experts feel the TPR ging below one per cent in 11 districts is a strong indication of the chain of infection being broken substantially, the state’s overall picture shows that the infection spread is under control.
While once hotspot Gajapati district did not report a single Covid infection on Monday, Sundargarh has been seeing anything between 50 and 80 cases every day since July 1. Sundargarh is a typical case of a consistent Covid graph all through the first and second waves, though its daily caseload in July is as good as it was during the initial phase of the second wave in April.
Dr Manoj Sahu, senior gastroenterologist and Covid in-charge at Sum Hospital said the 11 districts with below one per cent TPR are the ones that show the chain of infection has broken. With the virus in other parts of state (especially the coastal pockets) still very much aggressive, there is no room for complacency. If all the districts report a TPR of two per cent or less consistently for a week, then we can say, the virus spread is exceedingly under control, he explained.
The capital city on Monday reported 286 new infection taking the active cases beyond 2000 (2015). It saw 234 Covid patients recovering from the virus with total fatalities reaching 776 as the government on Monday confirmed 62 more Covid deaths. The states cumulative fatalities touched 5574.
