Bhubaneswar, Dec 30: Five more persons have tested positive for the Omicron variant of Covid-19, taking the tally of the new variant cases to 14 in Odisha, informed the Institute of Life Sciences (ILS) on Thursday.
Odisha had first reported 2 cases of Omicron infection on December 21. The infected duo had returned from Nigeria and Qatar, respectively.
The State Omicron tally subsequently jumped to four after the detection of 2 more cases on Dec, 23. As per health officials, two children, aged 11 and 15, who had returned to Khordha from Nigeria were diagnosed with the new variant of coronavirus.
Earlier on Sunday, four persons were found infected with the new variant of Covid. Of the four Omicron-infected persons, three had returned from Nigeria while the other from Saudi Arabia.
Similarly on December 29, another person, a resident of Keonjhar district, had tested positive for the variant of concern. He had returned from Dubai on December 16.
Meanwhile, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) and Cuttack Municipal Corportaion (CMC) have announced closure of all religious institutions for the public from December 31 to January 2, 2022 in their jurisdiction in a bid to prevent further spread of covid.
However, all rituals will be performed in the religious institutions by the servitors in the absence of the devotees and public.
Health and Family Welfare department sources said in the past 24 hours 225 more people were tested covid positive in Odisha taking the total cumulative tally in the state to 10,54,606.
Out of 225 new infections, 132 were reported from the quarantine centres and 93 as local contact cases. Khordha district recorded the highest number of 87 cases followed by Sambalpur(23) , Sundargarh (13),Balasore (12) and Cuttack(11).
In the past 24 hours only one covid death was reported form Khordha district pushing the total fatalities in the state to 8458. The active cases in the state stood at 1652 of which Khordha district alone accounted for 710 followed by Sambalpur (118) and Cuttack ( 102).
Sources said the recovery in the state surged to 10, 44,443 after 165 covid patients were cured from the virus on Wednesday.
The test positivity rate(TPR) in the state rose to 0.36 percent on Thursday. Two districts Khordha and Deogarh have reported test positivity rate at 1.6 percent and 1.1 percent respectively while ten districts recorded zero test positivity rate and 18 other districts had the test positivity rate below one percent.
Meanwhile, the Omicron infection tally has climbed at 961 across the nation, of which 320 patients have been discharged from hospitals.
