With Odisha logging a sharp rise in COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, the pandemic third wave scare has returned to haunt the coastal State prompting the government to postpone the reopening of primary schools.

In a rapid single-day spike of almost 43%, the State logged 424 new cases of Covid-19, in the last 24 hours. This is the highest single-day rise in infections in the last 63 days. It is pertinent to note here that the State had breached the 400-mark on 30 October last year when 488 cases were reported in a single day.

The new infections were detected from 20 districts, pushing the cumulative tally to 10,55,556 while 14 cases of Omicron mutant variants have been detected in the State so far, the health authorities said on Sunday.

Meanwhile, one fresh fatality took the death toll to 8,463 while the Test Positivity Rate (TPR) at 0.68% continued to remain below 1% for over two months. Of the new infectees, 67 are between 0-18 years of age.

The Kandhamal district with no active case has turned covid-free zone while six more districts with single-digit active cases are on the verge of becoming infection-free territories.

The Khordha district reported the highest number of daily cases at 177. The district accounted for nearly 42 percent of the new infections while 10 out of 30 districts did not report any new cases in the last 24 hours.

The state currently has 2,078 active COVID-19 cases while 10,44,962 patients including 159 on Saturday recovering from the disease.

As 424 samples gave positive results out of 61,652 samples tested on Friday, the Test Positivity Rate (TPR) stood at 0.68 percent against the previous day’s 0.47%.

The State’s recovery rate currently stands at 98.99% while active cases account for 0.19% of total positive cases registered in the State.

The State’s share is 3.08% in the country’s confirmed virus caseload while the active cases are 1.36% of India’s total active cases. The number of cured patients accounts for 3.1% of the country’s total recovery. Odisha has so far reported 1.85% of the country’s Coronavirus deaths.

The state’s health authorities have so far administered 5,02,24,717 COVID-19 vaccine doses while 2,09,33,324 people out of 3.09 crore eligible adult population are fully vaccinated. Over 67% of the eligible population has so far received both doses of vaccine.