Bhubaneswar, Jun 18 () Odisha reported 174 fresh cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, taking the total number of coronavirus cases in the state to 4,512, officials said.
Of the fresh cases, 146 were reported from different quarantine centres, where people returning from other parts of the country have been put up.
At least 16 of the 174 are frontline workers, also referred to as 'corona warriors', 13 from Ganjam district and three from Bhubaneswar.
Necessary follow up action, including contact tracing, were being undertaken, a health department official said.
As many as 97 patients were discharged from hospitals in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of recoveries in Odisha to 3,144.
Satyajit Mohanty, the director general of fire services, Odisha Police, said 11 personnel of the department, who had tested positive after returning from cyclone- restoration duty in West Bengal, have been declared "cured".
NDRF Director General Satya Narayan Pradhan said 13 of the 50 personnel, who had contracted the disease during cyclone relief work in the neighbouring state, have recovered.
"1st batch of fully recovered 13 COVID-Infected NDRF (out of 50) personnel have returned... Spoke to all by VideoConf. With high morale all are ready for duty soon!" Pradhan tweeted.
Taking the new cases into account, the number of active patients in the state has risen to 1,451.
Ganjam continues to be worst-affected by the pandemic, accounting for 56 of the 174 fresh cases, taking the total in the district to 755.
Around 2.5 lakh migrant workers have returned to the district from states such as Gujarat, Kerala and Telangana.
"The frontline workers diagnosed with the disease in Ganjam are from the Bargaon gram panchayat area in Aska. For the last 21 days, they have been living away from homes and serving people," an official said.
Three other frontline workers who tested positive in Bhubanewar are employees of a dedicated COVID-19 hospital in the state capital.
A female police officer in Puri district has also been diagnosed with COVID-19, said SP Umashankar Dash.
The assistant sub-inspector of Brahmagiri police station had come in contact with an infected criminal, who was recently arrested.
Eleven people have succumbed to COVID-19 in Odisha. Three others afflicted with disease died due to comorbidities.
At least 3,752 samples have been examined for COVID-19 on Wednesday, taking the total number of tests to 2,12,224.
An official statement issued by the Information and Public Relations department said 5,61,068 Odias have returned to the state so far, 4,625 of them on Thursday.
The returnees have been placed under quarantine in 16,820 temporary medical centres across 6,798 gram panchayats, the statement added. AAM RMS TDS TDS