Odisha's COVID-19 death toll mounts to 77; infection tally rises to 14,898

Bhubaneswar, Jul 15 () Odisha's death toll due to coronavirus mounted to 77 with three more patients succumbing to the disease on Wednesday, while the infection tally rose to 14,898 with 618 fresh cases, a health department official said.

Two men from Ganjam district, aged 65 and 86 years, and a 72-year-old man from Bhubaneswar city, died of the disease, he said.

"Regret to inform the demise of three COVID-19 positive patients while under treatment in hospitals," the official said in a statement.

With these fatalities, the COVID-19 death toll increased to 77 in the state.

Ganjam reported 46 deaths, followed by 13 in Khurda, eight in Cuttack, two in Puri, and one each in Angul, Bargarh, Bhadrak, Gajapati, Jajpur, Kendrapara, Rayagada and Sundergarh, the official said.

"Two other coronavirus patients died due to non-COVID reasons," he said.

"A 72-year old man from Ganjam with traumatic brain injury and a 52-year-old man from Khurda district with coronary artery disease, who had tested positive for coronavirus, died due to non-COVID reasons," the official said.

The number of coronavirus patients who died of other complications increased to 24, he said.

Meanwhile, 618 new cases of coronavirus were reported from 22 districts of the state in the last 24 hours.

Of the fresh cases, 411 were detected in quarantine centres across the state, while 207 were found through contact-tracing exercises, the official said.

Ganjam reported the highest of 286 new cases, followed by Khurda (107), Balasore (61), Jagatsinghpour (26), Mayurbhanj (21) and Cuttack (16).

Fifteen cases were detected each in Nayagarh and Sundergarh, 14 in Angul, 13 in Malkangiri and 10 in Sundergarh. Eleven other districts also reported fresh cases, but the numbers are in single digits, the official said.

The Odisha government has deployed 130 doctors and 52 administrative officers in various health facilities in Ganjam which is the worst-hit district by the COVID-19 outbreak, he said.

According to him, MBBS doctors and medical officers from the AYUSH department have been asked to serve their duties in health facilities in Ganjam which has been reporting the maximum number of fresh cases for the past few days.

The state now has 4,983 active cases, while 9,864 patients have so far recovered from the disease.

The health department conducted 6,598 COVID-19 tests on Tuesday, he added.

AAM BDC SRY