COVID-19 death toll rises to 48 in Odisha

Bhubaneswar, Jul 8 () Odisha reported six more COVID-19 fatalities on Wednesday, taking the death toll due to the disease to 48, while the state's total tally rose to 10,624 with 527 fresh cases, a health department official said.

Three deaths were reported from Ganjam and one each from Rayagada, Kendrapara and Khurda, he said.

"Regret to inform the demise of six COVID positive patients while under treatment in hospital," the official said.

Two men, aged 56 and 64, and a 50-year-old woman from Ganjam district succumbed to the disease, and they were suffering from diabetes, he said.

A 55-year-old man from Bhubaneswar in Khurda district also died of the coronavirus infection, the official said.

"An 80-year-old man from Rayagada district, who was suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, died of COVID-19, while a 49-year-old man from Kendrapara also succumbed to the disease. He was a diabetic patient," the official said.

Of the 48 deaths so far in Odisha, Ganjam, the worst-hit district, accounts for 27, followed by eight in Khurda, five in Cuttack, and one each in Baragarh, Gajapati, Angul, Kendrapara, Puri, Rayagada, Jajpur and Sundergarh, he said.

A 53-year-old coronavirus patient from Khurda district also died, but the health department attributed the cause of his death to "non-COVID reasons", the official said.

According to the health department, he was HIV positive.

With this, the number of coronavirus patients who died due to "non-COVID reasons" increased to 13 in Odisha.

A total of 527 people, including Salipur's BJD MLA Prasant Behera, tested positive for coronavirus, the official said.

Of the fresh cases, the highest of 215 were detected in Ganjam, followed by Sundergarh (78), Khurda (50), Balasore (26), Jajpur (25), Bolangir (21), Nayagarh (18), Cuttack (17), Puri (16) and Mayurbhanj (10).

Sixteen other districts reported new COVID-19 cases but the numbers are in single digit, the official said.

Of the 527 fresh cases, 338 have been reported from different quarantine centres, while 189 were found due to the contact-tracing exercises, the official said.

Odisha now has 3,860 active cases, while 6,703 patients have recovered from the disease.

The health department on Tuesday tested 5,918 samples. AAM BDC DV DV