The COVID-19 infection in Odisha continues to assume virulent proportions with nine out of 30 districts in the State logging Test Positivity Rate (TPR) of more than 20 per cent in the past week from 22 May to 28 May, according to the latest data released by the union health ministry.
The Dhenkanal district with a high TPR of 36.80% tops the list of districts followed by Bhadrak (36.60%), Balasore (33.71%), Cuttack (32.52%), Khordha (30.03%), Jajpur (25.13%), Boudh (25.09%), Puri (22.83%), and Angul (21.99%).
On the other hand, as many 16 districts account for TPR in between 11 to 19%. These districts are Kendrapara (19.55%), Jagatsinghpur (19.41%), Mayurbhanj (19.26%), Nabarangpur (15.64%), Nayagarh- (14.93%), Rayagada (14.60%), Bargarh (14.59%), Ganjam (13.84%), Jharsuguda (13.44%), Koraput- (13.17%), Sundargarh (12.82%), Kalahandi (12.11%), Sonepur (11.75%), Sambalpur (11.38%), Nuapada- (11.05%) and Keonjhar (10.66%). Five districts with less than 10% test positivity rate are comparatively least COVID-infected parts of the State.
The test positivity rate (TPR) in Odisha however had dipped to 14.44% on Saturday. A senior official of State’s health and family welfare department said “the infection rate has grown in rural areas in comparison to urban areas. During the first wave of the contagion last year, the urban areas were mostly affected by the COVID virus”.
The rural areas have reported 57% of total positive cases in the current month of May while around 51% of the total cases were detected in rural areas in April.