The drive will continue till July 31, National Health Mission's Odisha director Shalini Pandit said.
The next four to six weeks during the monsoon is a crucial period for the spread of the contagion and all symptomatic cases in the state will be tested, she said.
The surveillance teams will have Anganwadi and ASHA workers who will visit all households in 53,845 villages and slums in all the 103 urban areas to locate persons having COVID-19 symptoms.
Odisha has so far reported 3,909 cases and 11 deaths.
Noting that the ICMR strategy has helped in detecting more positive cases in the state, Pandit said, "We have been testing all the symptomatic persons and those in close contact with positive cases as per the ICMR guidelines".
Elaborating on the ICMR strategy, she said, "Earlier, when asymptomatic persons were being tested, one among 200 was found to be infected. Now one in every 20 symptomatic cases is testing positive for the virus".
Referring to the state's strategy to deal with coronavirus pandemic during the past three months after the first case in the state was reported in Bhubaneswar, Pandit said those testing positive are being hospitalised and provided treatment.
Because of this, the death rate in Odisha was the lowest at 0.03 per one lakh population compared to 0.7 per cent in the country and 6.6 per cent in Delhi.
The NHM director also claimed that the recovery rate in Odisha is a high of 67 per cent against the national average of 51 per cent.
Odisha is a model for the rest of the country for its low mortality and high recovery rate, Pandit said, adding that this has been possible due to the cooperation by people and the involvement of community in the fight against the COVID-19.
Claiming that Odisha's strategy is exemplary, she said, "We have so far conducted two lakh tests. Tests per million in the state are higher than the country's average. The COVID-19 test positivity rate per lakh population in the state is 9.3 per cent compared to 88 per cent in Maharashtra, 205 per cent in Delhi and the national average of 25 per cent."
On the testing facilities in the state, Pandit said that testing for COVID-19 began in February in one laboratory, where two to three tests were conducted in a day.
Now there are 17 laboratories in 10 districts of Odisha. These are not confined to Bhubaneswar, Cuttack or Ganjam but are also located in far-flung areas like remote Mathili block in Malkangiri district. In the coming days more laboratories will be opened, she added.
Regional Medical Research Centre (RMRC), Bhubaneswar, director Sanghamitra Pati said of the over two lakh coronavirus tests in Odisha, the Centre has conducted 75,000 tests out of which 989 cases were positive. AAM KK RT