The rapid rise in COVID-19 cases goes unabated as the State on Friday reported 2,703 cases with a 42.48% rise in the last 24 hours with a weekly growth estimated at an alarming 807%.

The exponential growth rate has become a cause of concern and this was not the case during the peak of the second wave last year. Given the current trend of COVID trajectory, it is a matter of time when the daily infection will breach the 10,000 psychological barriers, said public health experts.

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However, the optimistic turn of events lies in the fact that the health condition of the majority of the new infectees is stable and the severity of the infection is largely less severe than those infected by the delta variant in the second wave. The bed occupancy of the Covid care hospitals is also currently abysmally low, they said.

While it is perceived that a sizable number of new infectees have contracted the Omicron variant, a clear picture will emerge only after the genome sequencing reports come out on the variant infection status. As the fatality and the number of serious patients is quite negligible at present, it is not the time to press the panic button, but to adhere to COVID protocol, experts opined on a brighter note.

The coastal state’s tally leapfrogged to 807% growth in the past week, sending ominous signals towards the possible outbreak of the third wave of the pandemic. On 1 January, 298 infections were detected while 2,405 more cases were detected, thus marking an eight-fold increase in daily infections.

As many as 2,703 new cases were diagnosed on Friday, a 42.48% rise than the previous day’s 1,897 tally. Odisha had last breached the 2000-mark in a single day with 2,085 cases on July 19, 2021. Thus the latest spike is the highest in the past six months.

The disconcerting feature of today’s Covid trajectory lies in the fact that the test positivity rate (TPR) has soared to 3.91 percent after remaining below 1% for nearly three months.

The new infections pushed the cumulative tally to 10,62,476 while 61 cases of Omicron mutant variants have been detected in the State so far, the health authorities said on Friday.

The State recorded one fresh fatality today with the death toll reaching 8,468. The Test Positivity Rate (TPR) at 3.91% surpassed 1% for the fourth consecutive day. Of the new infectees, 409 are between 0-18 years of age.

All the 30 districts in the State currently have active cases while Khordha with 3,004 active cases has turned into a red zone. Khordha of which the capital city of Bhubaneswar is a part has once again emerged as the hotspot of the disease logging a high of 926 cases, accounting for almost 42% of the State’s cumulative tally of the day.

Sundargarh has turned into a yellow zone with its cumulative active cases crossing 1,000-mark. The Khordha was followed by Sundargarh (454) infections, 191 in Cuttack, 179 in Sambalpur, 106 in Jharsuguda.

The state currently has 8,237 active COVID-19 cases while 10,45,718 patients including 204 on Thursday recovering from the disease.

As 2,703 samples gave positive results out of 68,970 samples tested on Thursday, the Test Positivity Rate (TPR) stood at 3.91 percent against the previous day’s 2.62%.

The State’s recovery rate currently stands at 98.42% while active cases account for 0.77% 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 2.89% of India’s total active cases. The number of cured patients accounts for 3.05% of the country’s total recovery. Odisha has so far reported 1.75% of the country’s Coronavirus deaths.

The state’s health authorities have so far administered 5,12,87,124 COVID-19 vaccine doses while 2,14,89,334 people out of 3.09 crore eligible adult population are fully vaccinated. Nearly 70% of the eligible population has so far received both doses of vaccine.