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Odisha records 101 new Covid-19 cases, its biggest single-day spike
Of the new Covid-19 cases registered in Odisha on Wednesday, most were reported from Ganjam, Balasore and Jajpur districts and were mostly migrant workers who had returned to the state from Surat in Gujarat or West Bengal.
Odisha saw its biggest single-day spike in Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, reporting 101 new infections which pushed the total number of coronavirus cases in the state to 538. Three people have died of the disease in the state so far.
State’s health and family welfare department officials said that of the cases reported on Wednesday, 91 were migrant workers who had returned from Surat in Gujarat or West Bengal and were have been staying in quarantine centres.
Out of the 101 new cases, almost half -52 -were in Ganjam, taking the district’s total number of cases to 210. Balasore accounted for 33 new cases while Jajpur had 7 new cases.
Though Odisha had registered its first 100 Covid cases in 42 days, it recorded the next 400 cases in just 15 days. It took only two days for the state to reach 400 from 300 and just one day to cross 500-mark as more and more migrant workers have returned after the factories and the construction sites they worked at shut down due to the national lockdown. Till Wednesday, an estimated 80, 000 migrant workers had arrived in Odisha with another 4.5 lakh waiting to arrive.
As coronavirus cases continue to rise rapidly, Ganjam district continues to remain a source of headache for the Naveen Patnaik government. The first Covid-19 case in Ganjam was detected on May 2 when an 18-year-old male migrant worker of Buguda block arrived in the district in a bus along with 69 other co-passengers. He was kept at a quarantine centre of Kukudakhandi block immediately upon his arrival. Of the 69 passengers, swab samples of 21 were tested, of which 6 tested positive.
Between May 2 and May 13, Ganjam added more than 209 cases as more and more people from Surat returned by trains, buses and other modes of transport.
“Migrants from Surat, a Covid hotspot have been the biggest source of corona infection in Odisha followed by migrants from Bengal, another Covid hotspot. Of the 538 cases, more than 230 are Surat returnees while another 150 would be those returning from Bengal. Till the migrant workers arrived, we had things under pretty much control,” said Dr Bijoy Mohapatra, director of health services.
The director said that with the continuous arrival of migrant workers, there may be a little chance of the curve flattening in Odisha. “Though most of the cases are those in quarantine centres, there is danger of local transmission as some of the persons quarantined may be visiting their families. The more we test, the more positives we will get,” he said. Till Wednesday, Odisha had tested 72,756 samples.
Fears of community transmission in Ganjam began after several migrant workers kept in the district’s quarantine centres fled last week while in other cases their near and dear were found to be loitering around the quarantine centres delivering food and other items. Odisha Assembly Speaker Surya Patro too alleged that some of the persons kept in quarantine centres were sneaking out to be with their family members at night.
However, Ganjam district Collector Vijay Amruta Kulange said community transmission has not started in the district and steps are being taken to avoid it. “All the positive cases so far have been from the quarantine centres. We are screening people at the railway station from where they are taken to respective quarantine centres. The quarantine centres have been declared as containment zones into which no one can enter or exit. Anyone violating it would be arrested,” he said. “In case a person comes from outside without our notice, the sarpanchs or village heads have been asked to identify them for sending them to mandatory 28-day quarantine.”
Apart from the sharp rise in positive cases in Ganjam, health department officials are worried over the possibility of the Surat returnees carrying the L-type strain of coronavirus that was originally found in China’s Wuhan and is known for showing Covid symptoms in patients. Unlike Covid positive cases in other districts, over 90 per cent of the cases detected in Ganjam cases have been symptomatic. Last month, a scientist at Gujarat Biotechnology Research Centre had claimed that the novel coronavirus used for genome sequencing contained the L-type strain that was found at Wuhan in China.
However, technical spokesperson of Health department Dr Jayanta Panda said a virological study needs to be done to find out evidence of the L-strain in Odisha.
