Bhubaneswar, Jun 17 () Odisha's COVID-19 tally rose to 4,338 on Wednesday as 175 more people, including 21 disaster response personnel, tested positive for the disease, a health department official said.
The day also registered the number of recoveries crossing the 3,000 mark as 73 patients were declared cured of coronavirus. The total number of recoveries now stand at 3,047 which is 70.23 per cent of the total cases.
Of the 175 fresh cases, 145 were reported from different quarantine centres where people returning from other states are housed, while the remaining 30 infections were found during contact tracing, he said.
The new cases include 21 personnel of the Odisha Police Fire Service. They were placed under institutional quarantine upon their return from West Bengal where they were sent for restoration work following cyclone Amphan, the official said.
The number of disaster response personnel infected with the disease has now increased to 195. As many as 174 personnel of the NDRF, the ODRAF and the Fire Service had earlier tested positive for COVID-19 in different phases, he said.
The new cases also include seven railway employees who returned from New Delhi, Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) said, adding that the number of COVID-19 cases in the state capital has increased to 149.
Meanwhile, the Puri district administration on Wednesday notified containment zones, after a lawyer and another person in the Puri civil court tested positive for COVID-19. Three accused persons who were produced in the court also tested positive for the virus, Puri district collector Balwant Singh said.
Of the total 4,338 COVID-19 cases, 1,277 are active while 3,047 people have recovered. Eleven people have died of the disease so far while three patients who had contracted the virus have died due to other ailments, the official said.
The state on Tuesday tested 2,971 samples taking the cumulative tests figure to 2,08,427.
Half of the 30 districts in the state have reported more than 100 cases each, of which four have registered more than 300 cases each -- Ganjam (698), Cuttack (541), Khurda (394) and Jajpur (341).
Meanwhile, the state government on Wednesday announced a change in its strategy to deal with the pandemic and decided to set up Corona Care Homes in all the 6,798 gram panchayats for treatment of people with flu symptoms.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik also announced setting up of ward-level committees to monitor the COVID situation in both rural and urban areas. AAM RG RDM RDM