Maintaining the declining trend of virus infection, Odisha on Sunday clocked 3,577 new COVID-19 cases, which pushed the tally to 8,77,502, while 42 fresh fatalities raised the toll to 3,590.

With the latest positive cases, the coastal State has logged less than 4,000 COVID-19 infections for the sixth consecutive day, giving evident signs of declining trend of the contagion while the fatalities continue to rise in a cause of worry for the State’s Coronavirus managers.

The samples tested during the last 24 hours found the test positivity rate (TPR) at 5.57%. Even though the TPR which hovered above 20% in May has declined substantially in the current month, the positivity continues to be on a higher side in some of the coastal districts. The mineral-rich Jajpur district has reported the highest TPR at 21 per cent, said the health and family welfare department officials.

As many as 8,35,132 patients have recovered from the highly infectious disease thus far. The number of active cases in the state fell from 43,338 to 38,727 on Sunday.

Of the 3,577 new cases reported from 30 districts, 2,039 were registered in quarantine units and the rest 1,538 detected during contact tracing.

Taking to Twitter, the health department said, “Regret to inform about the demise of 40 Covid patients while under treatment in hospitals.”

The Khurda district, of which the capital city Bhubaneswar is a part, reported the highest 571 cases in the last 24 hours, followed by Cuttack (407), Jajpur (337), Puri (237), Balasore (205), Mayurbhanj (187), Bhadrak (186), Angul (127), Kendrapara (141), Nayagarh (114) and Jagatsinghpur (103).

Five fatalities each were reported from Bargarh and Cuttack district while four each from Koraput, Rayagada and Mayurbhanj, three each from Ganjam, Jharsuguda, Khordha. Two deaths were reported from Bolangir, Puri and Sundargarh and one each from Angul, Malkangiri and Nayagarh districts.

Over 1.30 crore samples have been tested in the state thus far, including 64,112 on Saturday.

The State’s recovery rate currently stands at 95.17% while the active cases account for 4.41% of total positive cases registered in the State.

The State’s share is 2.95% in the country’s confirmed virus caseload while the active cases are 4.88% of India’s total active cases. The number of cured patients accounts for 2.92% of the country’s total recovery. Odisha has so far reported 0.94% of the country’s Coronavirus deaths.