IndiaBhubaneswar, May 22 () As many as 86 more persons tested positive for COVID-19 in Odisha, raising the total number of such cases in the state to 1,189, the Health department said on Friday.
Of the 86 new cases, 80 were reported from quarantine centres in various parts of the state, an official said.
The fresh cases were mostly people from Odisha who had returned from Maharastra, Gujarat, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Chhattishgarh, Haryana, Telangana and four from United Arab Emirates, the official said.
Of the fresh 86 cases, Jajpur recorded the maximum number of 46 cases, followed by Cuttack at 11, Nayagarh at six and Ganjam at five. Three cases each were reported from Balasore, Bhadrak, Keonjhar, Khurda and Puri, and one from Sundergarh district, the department said.
Meanwhile, as many as 43 COVID-19 patients have recovered and were discharged from hospitals. The number of people cured were from Angul (15), eight each from Ganjam, Jajpur and Rourkela and one each from Puri, Kendrapara, Cuttack and Boudh.
Taking the new cases and recovery of patients, the number of active cases in the state now stands at 746. So far 436 people have recovered from the disease while seven people have died of the viral infection.
As many as 5,014 samples were tested for COVID-19 on Thursday. The number of samples examined so far has climbed to 1,13,466, an official of the department said.
Dr Jayant Panda, the spokesperson of the health and welfare department, said on Friday that Odisha's tally may surpass 10,000 by the end of June.
"Keeping in view the spurt in COVID-19 cases in the state with the return of migrants from other parts of the country, the tally is likely to surpass 10,000 by June-end," he said.
An official release said that under "Atmanirbhar Bharat Economic" measures, the state government has decided to distribute free of cost rice and 'chana' to the stranded migrant workers without having a ration card.
Under this, 5 kg of rice per person per month and 1 kg 'chana' per household per month will be distributed for two months (May and June-2020), the release said.
Meanwhile, as many as 9,474 people from Odisha stranded in different parts of the country on Friday returned to the state, taking the total number of such returnees to 2,23,847 since May 3. AAM RG TDS TDS