Bhubaneswar, Dec 29: One more returnee from Dubai was found infected with Omicron variant of Covid 19 taking the total omicron patient in Odisha to nine.
Health and Family Welfare department sources said a 31-year-old youth who had returned to Odisha on December 16 last was tested covid positive.
His genome sequencing was done at the Institute of Life Science (ILS) Bhubaneswar and he was found infected with the Omicron variant of covid. However, his parents were tested covid negative.
Meanwhile, the daily covid load in Odisha which remained below 200 mark since December 10 last suddenly jumped to 221 in the past 24 hours taking the total tally in the state to 10,54,381.
Out of the 221 new covid positive cases,129 were reported from the quarantine centres and 92 as local contact cases.
Khordha district registered the highest number of 98 cases followed by Sambalpur (21) and Cuttack ( 15) The other 19 districts, however, reported single-digit covid cases and no covid cases were reported from eight districts.
During the past 24 hours two more covid deaths were reported, one each from Khordha and Koraput district pushing the total fatalities in the state to 8457.
The covid recoveries in the state surged to 10,44,278 as 185 more covid patients were cured of the virus on Tuesday.
The active cases have gone up to 1593 in the past 24 hours of which Khordha district alone recorded 718 cases followed by Cuttack (104) and Sambalpur (102).
The test positivity rate in the state on Wednesday stood at 0.35 per cent from 0.30 per cent recorded on Tuesday.
Khordha district registered the highest test positivity rate of 1.6 per cent while the other 29 districts have a test positivity rate below one per cent, eight of whom, however, recorded zero test positivity rate.
