Odisha on Monday registered 32 deaths due to COVID-19, the highest so far in a single day, pushing the toll to 2,516 while the state reported yet another steep daily spike of 11,059 fresh infections at 16.62% Test Positivity Rate (TPR), while the State’s cumulative pandemic caseload crossed the 7-lakh mark to reach at 7,03,441.

Things are going from bad to worse in the state’s ongoing battle in the COVID-19 second wave with steady rise in both the infection and fatality rate. The virus has permeated deep in rural areas, even not sparing the far-flung inaccessible pockets inhabited by Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs), according to public health experts.

The rise in the fatality graph in the second wave has been evidently a worrisome development. As many as 473 have died of virus infections in the past 24 days, which implies that almost 19% of total COVID deaths have been reported in little over three weeks’ period.

However skeptics tend to believe that the government has dabbled in large-scale underreporting of fatalities. The home-isolated COVID deaths mostly in rural areas are missing fatalities that the government has willfully tried to cover up, they alleged.

As many as 2,03,043 virus infections have been reported in the State since 5 May, when lockdown was enforced in the State. Since the past 19 days, 10,705 cases are being reported in the State at a daily average.

As per the information posted at the COVID dashboard of Odisha government, 86 percent of the 30 districts are currently in the Red Zone category as the active cases in as many as 26 revenue districts have surpassed 1,000 count. Only four districts- Deogarh, Gajapati, Kandhamal and Malkangiri- come under Yellow Zone with less than 1,000 active cases.

Of the infected people in Odisha, 65 per cent are men while 35 percent are women. Of the total 7,03,441 covid-infected people in Odisha, as many 3,70,496 people are from 15-40 age groups accounting for 52.66% of the caseload.

The State’s recovery rate currently stands at 83.81% with as many as 5,89,610 cured of the disease so far. Odisha currently has 1,11,262 active cases, which account for 15.81% of total positive cases registered in the State.

The State’s share is 2.63% in the country’s confirmed virus caseload while the active cases are 4.1% of India’s total active cases. The number of cured patients accounts for 2.49% of the country’s total recovery. Odisha has so far reported 0.83% of the country’s Coronavirus deaths.

The state has so far tested 1,13,75,076 samples for COVID-19 including 66,512 on Sunday while Odisha’s cumulative positivity rate is 6.18 per cent.