The COVID-19 fatality surge continues unabated in Odisha as the State on Friday registered 68 deaths in a single day, taking the toll to 5,377. A total of 1,864 new virus infection cases were also reported in the last 24 hours at 2.49% Test Positivity Rate (TPR) pushing the tally to 9,65,715.

Over 49% of the total death toll has been recorded in the State in the past 54 days. As many as 2,691 Covid patients have succumbed to infection since 31 May at a daily average of almost 50 deaths. The surge in deaths had begun to emerge after the launch of the district-level audit for death recount.

Commenting on the fatality surge, the Health & Family Welfare Department officials said “the list does not reflect deaths occurring on a particular day. It lists details of past deaths for which the audit process has been duly completed and the cause of death has been identified as due to COVID-19”.

Khurda district, of which the state capital Bhubaneswar is a part, alone accounted for 30 fatalities followed by 11 casualties from Puri, 8 from Angul, 7 from Mayurbhanj, 6 from Keonjhar and one each from Ganjam, Jagatsinghpur, Kandhamal, Malkangiri, Nuapada and Sundargarh districts. With today’s fresh deaths, the toll in Khordha district has crossed the 1,000 mark to reach 1,033.

Of the fresh virus infection reported from all the 30 districts in Odisha, 1,082 were from quarantine while 782 are local contact cases. In the last 24 hours, Khordha reported the highest of 496 new infections, followed by Cuttack (221) and Balasore (114).

Currently, Khurda and Cuttack districts are tagged in the COVID Red Zone category with 4,604 and 2,583 active cases respectively while 26 districts are tagged accounting for less than 1,000 active cases.

Meanwhile, the active cases have come down to 19,013 with daily recoveries breaching the virus infections. A total of 2,044 patients who were either home isolated or hospitalized recuperated from the disease in the past 24 hours while 9,41,204 have recovered from the disease so far.

Over 1.54 crore sample tests have been conducted so far, including 74,707 in the past 24 hours. Odisha’s positivity rate stands at 6.24 per cent.

The State’s recovery rate currently stands at 97.46% while active cases account for 1.96% 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 4.71% of India’s total active cases. The number of cured patients accounts for 3.09% of the country’s total recovery. Odisha has so far reported 1.3% of the country’s Coronavirus deaths.