Odisha logged 40 percent of cumulative Covid caseload in the month of May alone and almost 26 percent of the total deaths in the state since the outbreak of the contagion in mid-March last year .

As many as 3,09,390 COVID-19 positive cases were reported in the current month at a daily average of 9,980 cases while 713 have succumbed to the infections in May with daily average casualty of 23.

The comforting turn of events nonetheless lies in the fact that the test positivity rate which hovered around 20-24% in May’s first week has slumped to 13 to 15% in the last week.

The improved situation in the small western district of Nuapada, which shares a border with Chattishgarh and witnessed exponential spike in infections earlier this month is another positive development. The district has turned green with less than 500 active cases and its positivity rate has decreased to less than 5% much to the relief of public health authorities.

Another reassuring development is that only 14% of COVID-infected people required hospitalization in May.

Meanwhile Odisha’s COVID-19 caseload climbed to 7,64,997 on Monday at 13.49% Test Positivity Rate (TPR) as 8,313 new cases were reported in the past 24 hours. 35 fatalities pushed the death toll to 2,754, according to Odisha’s COVID dashboard information updated at 8.48 am today.

As many as 8,278 patients who were either home isolated or hospitalized recuperated from the disease in the past 24 hours.

Twenty four districts are in the red zone with over 1000 active cases while five districts of Deogarh, Gajapati, Kandhamal and Malkangiri, and Keonjhar- come under Yellow Zone with less than 1,000 active cases.

The number of fresh infections dropped below 10,000 for the fifth consecutive day this month.

Testing has been ramped up with 66,057 and 61,613 samples tested respectively in the past two days.

Khordha district, of which the State’s capital Bhubaneswar is a part, topped the daily tally with 974 infections followed by Cuttack (593), Mayurbhanj (532), Angul (505), Sundargarh (465), Balassore (452) and Dhenkanal (407), Jajpur (354) and Kendrapara (331).