Odisha on Friday registered 69 COVID-19 fatalities in a single day, taking the toll to 5,377, while 1,948 new virus infection cases at 2.45% Test Positivity Rate (TPR) pushed the tally to 9,63,851.

Over 48% of the total death toll has been recorded in the State in the past 53 days. As many as 2,623 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 26 fatalities (including 15 from Bhubaneswar) followed by 10 in Balasore, 7 in Sambalpur, 6 in Kendrapara, 5 in Bargarh, 4 in Sundargarh, 2 each in Balangir, Jharsuguda, Kandhamal and Rayagada, and one each is in Dhenkanal, Nuapada, and Subarnapur.

Of the fresh virus infection reported from all the 30 districts in Odisha, 1109 were from quarantine while 808 are local contact cases. In the last 24 hours, Khordha reported the highest of 518 new infections, followed by Cuttack (256) and Puri (118).

Currently, Khurda and Cuttack districts are tagged in the COVID Red Zone category with 4,574 and 2,683 active cases respectively while 26 districts are tagged accounting for less than 1,000 active cases.

Meanwhile, the active cases have come down to 19,261 with daily recoveries breaching the virus infections. A total of 2,210 patients who were either home isolated or hospitalized recuperated from the disease in the past 24 hours while 9,39,160 have recovered from the disease so far.

Over 1.53 crore sample tests have been conducted so far, including 78,134 in the past 24 hours. Odisha’s positivity rate stands at 6.26 percent.

The State’s recovery rate currently stands at 97.43% while active cases account for 1.99% 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 4.82% of India’s total active cases. The number of cured patients accounts for 3.08% of the country’s total recovery. Odisha has so far reported 1.28% of the country’s Coronavirus deaths.