Odisha reported its first Omicron-related death as a 45-year-old woman from Bolangir having no travel history succumbed to the new variant, informed Balangir Chief District Medical Officer (CDMO) Snehalata Sahu on Thursday.
According to reports, the deceased woman was admitted to Bhima Bhoi Medical College & Hospital on December 22, 2021. Thereafter, she was shifted to Burla Hospital where she was detected with COVID-19 on December 23. Later, her sample was sent to the Institute of Life Sciences, Bhubaneswar for genome sequencing. However, before the results were out, she died due to a cardiac arrest on December 27.
Meanwhile, it was today after her genome sequencing report was out that it was understood that the woman was infected with the Omicron variant.
Odisha logs 1,897 new COVID-19 cases; biggest single-day spike in 5 months
Odisha on Thursday recorded its biggest single-day spike in COVID-19 cases in five months as 1,897 more people tested positive for the infection, a health bulletin said.
The fresh infections took the state's coronavirus tally to over 10.6 lakh, it said.
The daily test positivity rate rose to 2.62 per cent from 1.77 per cent on the previous day. At least 258 children were among those newly infected, the bulletin said.
The number of fresh cases jumped more than six-fold from 298 infections on January 1. The state had logged 1,216 new COVID cases on Wednesday, while 1,917 infections were registered on July 23 last year.
Khurda district reported nearly one-third of the 1,897 fresh cases with 669 infections, followed by 262 in Sundargarh, 148 in Cuttack, 125 in Sambalpur and 100 in Balasore, the bulletin said.
The toll mounted to 8,467 as a 78-year-old man succumbed to the disease in Bhubaneswar. Fifty-three other coronavirus-positive patients have died due to comorbidities so far, according to the data.
Odisha now has 5,739 active cases, including 2,167 in Khurda, which comprises the capital city Bhubaneswar.
At least 138 patients were cured of the disease in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of recoveries to 10.46 lakh, the bulletin said.
The state tested 72,370 samples during the period, it added.
Health Services Director Bijay Mohapatra said the Omicron variant of the coronavirus was present in all the districts, which are showing gradual rise in cases.
"Bed occupancy rate in hospitals is very low and availability is high. We are still taking steps to increase the number of beds," Mohapatra told journalists.
(With PTI inputs)
