Odisha has entered endemic stage of coronavirus, says state health service director

Bhubaneshwar: Odisha has entered the endemic stage of coronavirus and there is need for booster dose of COVID vaccine, a top health department official said on Monday. Director Health Serice (DHS), Bijay Mohapatra said there is a report of around 500 new cases daily in the state. “Odisha is now in endemic stage of coronavirus. The study report of a technical committee formed by the government on administration on booster dose is awaited,” he said. The DHS said that in the capital city of Bhubaneswar COVID-19 transmission has reached a plateau phase with fluctuation in daily cases. “The city may not witness staggering situation caused by the virus in the coming days,” he told reporters. Mohapatra said as the state continues to report around 500 new cases and Bhubaneswar accounted for nearly 50 percent of the cases, the government health experts have proposed booster dose of vaccines amidst apprehensions of more COVID-19 transmission due to a new Delta Plus variant in the country. The final decision will, however, be taken by the technical committee of the state. The chief of the directorate of medical education and training, professor CBK Mohanty said that the mutant of the Delta variant of COVID-19 has been found in some states like Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. The new variant may infect 10 times more people than the previous ones and as the mutant has been just detected it has been tagged as under investigation. Mohanty said. The director of health services said 425 people tested positive for the contagion during the day taking the caseload in the pandemic in the state to 10,38,836. The toll in the state mounted to 8,312 as three more patients died due to the contagion. The fresh fatalities were reported from Bhadrak, Keojhar and Mayurbhanj districts, Mohapatra said. So far 53 COVID-19 patients have died due to comorbidities, he said. With 425 out of 64,709 samples tested on Sunday found to be positive for the infection, the state’s daily test positivity rate stood at 0.65 percent, a health department bulletin said. The state detected less than 500 new cases for the fourth consecutive day on Monday. It had reported 447 new cases on Sunday, 441 on Saturday, 467 on Friday, and 524 on Thursday, it said. Among the new 425 cases, 71 (16.70 percent) are in the age group of 0 to 18 years. While 249 cases came from the quarantines, the remaining 176 were local contact cases, tthe bulletin said. Khurda district of which Bhubaneswar is a part, reported the highest daily infection at 211 infections and accounted for almost 50 percent of the state’s daily count. It was followed by Cuttack with 40 new cases. Seven districts reported nil cases. The state currently has 4,554 active cases, while as many as 10,25,917 patients including 410 on Sunday, recovered from the highly infectious disease, it said. Odisha has so far tested over 2.15 crore samples, including 64,709 on Sunday for COVID-19. The state’s positivity rate stands at 4.81 percent, the data released by the health and family welfare department said. As many as 1,06,43,846 people have been fully inoculated so far with double doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the state, it added.