Bhubaneswar, Jan 03: The daily covid load in Odisha reported 424 for the second consecutive day in the past 24 hours taking the cumulative tally in the state to 10,55,980.
Health and Family Welfare department sources said out of 424 new infections, 246 were reported from quarantine centres 178 as local contact cases. As many as 47 positive cases were detected in the age group of 0 to 18 years.
Khordha district recorded the highest number of 151 cases followed by Cuttack (66), Balasore (29), Sundargarh (27), Sambalpur (22) and Jharsuguda (14).
The three coastal districts of Odisha such as Khordha, Cuttack and Balasore together accounted for 58.01 per cent of new cases in the state.
For the first time, no covid death was reported from any district in the state and the fatalities stood at 8460.
However, the active cases surged to 2355 of which Khordha district alone reported 949 cases followed by Cuttack (212) and Sambalpur(128).
These three districts together accounted for 54.73 per cent of the total active cases in the state.
Official sources said 147 covid patients were cured of the virus on Sunday taking the total recoveries in the state to 10,45,109.
The test positivity rate in the state rose to 0.77 per cent on Monday.
Khordha district however recorded the highest test positivity rate of 3 per cent followed by Cuttack ( 1.4 per cent), Sundargarh and Balasore 1.1 per cent each.
The other 26 districts, however, recorded a test positivity rate of less than one per cent.
The state has so far reported 34 omicron variants of covid 19 of which a majority of 23 were detected on Sunday.
Director Health Services Bijay Mohapatra said out of 23 new Omicron cases detected yesterday, 19 have no symptoms of covid at all while four have mild symptoms only.
He further said of these 23 new omicron cases eleven have a travel history of foreign countries and the other eleven have no travel history.
Meanwhile, the vaccination for the age group of 15 to 18 years old started across the state on Monday. In the state capital, the vaccination for these groups began at 35 of the total 57 centres set up by the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation ( BMC).
The school students were asked to make their identity cards for registration.
