Bhubaneswar, May 1 () Five more people, including two with recent travel history to Tamil Nadu, tested positive for COVID-19 in Odisha on Friday, taking the total number of cases in the state to 147, officials said.
Bolangir district, in the western part of Odisha, which wastill now untouched by the novel coronavirus, reported two COVID-19cases. Both returned from Tamil Nadu, a senior official said.
While two other new patients were detected in COVID-19hotspot Jajpur district, another with recent travel history toKolkata, tested positive in Balasore district, the officials said.
The Jajpur patients were identified as a 75-year-oldwoman of Katikata and a 55-year-old man of Birajpur. Katikataand Birajpur are in containment zones where aggressivesurveillance and contact tracing are under way with largescaletesting.
The two cases in Bolangir, detected in Lekhariavillage, are men aged 22 and 18 years, a senior Informationand Public Relations Department official said, adding thatcontact tracing and follow up action has been launched in thearea.
With COVID-19 spreading its tentacles to Bolangir, 15of the 30 districts of Odisha have so far reported coronaviruscases.
With the fresh cases, the total number of COVID-19positive cases climbed to 38 in Jajpur district and 20 inBalasore. All were asymptomatic and contact tracing of the newpatients and follow up action is underway, health departmentofficials said.
Two patients in Bhubaneswar have recovered from COVID-19, the health department said. Of the 47 cases in Khurda district, 27 persons have so far recovered, they said, adding that one person from state capital Bhubaneswar had died of the coronavirus on April 6.
The total number of cases in the state has mounted to 147, of which 105 are active and 41 have recovered and one has died of the disease.
Of the total 147 COVID-19 cases, Bhubaneswar tops thelist with 47, followed by 38 in Jajpur, 20 in Balasoredistrict, 19 in Bhadrak district, 10 in Sundergarh district,two each in Kendrapara, Kalahandi and Bolangir districts, oneeach case in Cuttack, Puri, Dhenkanal, Jharsuguda, Deogarh,Keonjhar and Koraput districts.
As more than 90 per cent of cases in Balasore, Jajpurand Bhadrak districts have West Bengal link, the health department appealed to people not to hidetheir travel history.
The people who have returned from West Bengal recentlymust come forward for COVID-19 testing. They may seem healthybut they could be infected and also spread infection, thedepartment said, adding that they are advised to contact localBDOs, tehsildars, sarpanchs and remain in isolation at home.
Testing is free, the department added.
A total of 2,437 samples were tested for COVID-19 on Thursday.
Altogether 34,133 samples have so far been tested inthe state since the outbreak of the highly infectious disease. AAM SKN RG ANBANB