Odisha COVID-19 death toll mounts to 17, total cases climb to 5,470

Bhubaneswar, Jun 23 () The COVID-19 death toll in Odisha has increased to 17 with two more fatalities and the number of cases rose to 5,470 after 167 people tested positive for the coronavirus, a health department official said on Tuesday.

The two deaths were reported from Cuttack district and they died while under treatment at hospitals, he said.

"Both were males. One was 71 years old and the age of the other was 53 years," the official said, adding that both the victims were suffering from pre-existing ailments.

Of the 17 COVID-19 deaths, Ganjam district has reported eight, followed by four in Khordha, three in Cuttack and one each in Bargarh and Puri districts, officials said.

Of the 167 fresh cases, 150 are from different quarantine centres where people who returned to Odisha from other states are lodged for preliminary observation. The remaining 17 cases were detected during contact-tracing exercises, the official said.

Gajapati district topped the list of new infections with 41 cases.

The officials said that as many as 125 COVID-19 patients have recovered and now the total number of recoveries in the state is 3,988.

Khordha district has reported the highest number of recoveries at 33 patients.

The number of active COVID-19 cases in Odisha stands at 1,458, while 3,988 patients are cured, 17 succumbed to COVID-19 and seven others died due to other reasons.

Meanwhile, an 80-year-old COVID-19 patient from Cuttack, who was suffering from "intestinal obstruction with sepsis and multiple organ dysfunction syndrome", also died in a hospital. "The reason of his death was non-COVID," the health department official said.

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