Bhubaneswar: Odisha reported 7,291 fresh COVID-19 cases on Monday, pushing the tally to 12,11,951, while the death toll mounted to 8,525 with five more fatalities, the Health Department said in a bulletin.
The state had registered 8,520 single-day cases and six deaths on Sunday.
As many as 954 children are among the new patients. The daily infections are the lowest in 13 days and have reduced by 30 per cent from 10,489 a week ago.
Odisha Congress president Niranjan Patnaik said in a tweet that he has tested positive for COVID-19. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik wished him a speedy recovery.
Renowned sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik also said late on Sunday that he was hospitalised after contracting the disease.
Odisha now has 81,765 active cases, and 11,21,608 patients have so far recovered from the disease, including 10,841 in the last 24 hours, the bulletin said.
Fifty-three other coronavirus patients have died due to comorbidities so far.
The positivity rate stood at 11.77 per cent after 61,969 samples were tested in the past 24 hours.
Khurda district, where state capital Bhubaneswar is situated, reported nearly a quarter of the new cases with 1,705 infections, followed by 646 in Sundargarh and 561 in Cuttack, it said.
Khurda now has 29,673 active cases, while Sundargarh, Cuttack and Balasore are also in the red zone, with over 2,500 patients each.
Puri, Jajpur and Sambalpur are among the 15 districts that are in the yellow zone with over 1,000 patients each.
The TPR was 25.9 per cent in Khurda, 25.5 per cent in Sundargarh, 23 per cent in Rayagada and 20.6 per cent in Subarnapur. Thirteen other districts have a positivity rate of over 7.5 per cent.
School Education Minister Samir Dash said that students of classes 10 and 12 should be ready for board examinations as the third wave was showing a downward trend.
"We hope that the examination can be conducted unless some unprecedented situation arises," Dash told reporters.
He said that the state government would take an appropriate decision after reviewing the COVID-19 situation.
Public Health Director Niranjan Mishra appealed to the people who have mild symptoms to get themselves tested as they could infect their family members if they were positive.
PTI
