Amidst apprehension of a possible outbreak of the third wave of the pandemic, the Odisha government has decided to constitute a district level taskforce to intensify health surveillance on the un-vaccinated younger population.

“The children in the age group of 0-18 are yet to be vaccinated. As per the prediction of the public health experts, there is a possibility of increased incidence of COVID-19 cases amongst the population of this age group in the eventuality of the 3rd wave of COVID-19. The State needs to be in full preparedness for capacity building for managing the high number of cases expected during the predicted 3rd wave of the pandemic”, said P.K. Mohapatra, State’s additional chief secretary.

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The district-level task force is being constituted for regular monitoring of all pediatric cases of influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infection (SARI). The swab collection of children of 0-18 years of age group shall be ensured for RT-PCR testing to screen out suspected positive cases in all health care facilities across the State, he added

Meanwhile, Odisha on Saturday added 1,132 COVID-19 cases with the tally soaring to 9,93,507, while 66 fresh fatalities pushed the death toll to 6,823, according to State’s COVID dashboard portal.

The coastal state now has 10,632 active cases, and 9,75,999 patients have so far recovered from the disease, including 1,243 in the last 24 hours.

Khurda district, comprising state capital Bhubaneswar, reported the highest number of 410 new infections followed by Cuttack 197, Balasore 70, Jagatsinghpur 42, Mayurbhanj 40, Nayagarh 31, Jajpur 29, Kendrapara 27, Angul 25, Sundergarh 23, and Puri 22.

The new fatalities include 15 deaths in Bargarh followed by 12 from Nayagarh, five from Angul, four from Nabarangpur, three each from Jajpur, Kendrapara and Sambalpur, two each from Balasore, Bargarh, Bolangir, Jagatsinghpur and Puri, and one each from Koraput and Mayurbhanj.

A total of 53 other COVID-19 patients have also died due to comorbidities.

Around 60% of the total death toll has been recorded in the State in the past 745 days, thus indicating the disturbing fact of the doubling of the cumulative fatalities. As many as 4,069 Covid patients have succumbed to infection since 31 May at a daily average of over 54 deaths while the cumulative death toll currently stood at 6,823. The surge in deaths had begun to emerge after the launch of the district-level audit for death recount.

Khurda continues to be in the red zone with 3,898 active cases, while Cuttack is under the yellow zone with 1,317 active cases. The remaining 28 districts are in the green zone, he said.

Odisha has thus far conducted over 1.68 crore sample tests, taking into account 68,872 clinical examinations on Friday. The cumulative positivity rate is at 5.88 percent and the case fatality rate is at 0.68 per cent.

The State’s recovery rate currently stands at 98.23% while active cases account for 1.07% of total positive cases registered in the State.

The State’s share is 3.09% in the country’s confirmed virus caseload while the active cases are 2.8% of India’s total active cases. The number of cured patients accounts for 3.12% of the country’s total recovery. Odisha has so far reported 1.59% of the country’s Coronavirus deaths.