Odisha on Wednesday registered 1,703 fresh COVID-19 cases at 2.16% Test Positivity Rate (TPR) raising the tally to 9,72,517, while the death count mounted to 5,703 with 69 more fatalities, according to the State government’s COVID dashboard portal updated at 8.49 am.

The coastal state now has 17,411 active cases and 9,49,350 patients have recovered from the disease, including 1,969 in the last 24 hours.

While 988 infections were detected from quarantine centres, the remaining 715 were local-contact cases.

The Khordha district reported a maximum of 386 fresh infections, followed by Cuttack (240) and Kendrapara (149).

Currently, Khordha is the only district in the State which has been tagged in the COVID Red Zone category with 4,509 active cases while the remaining 29 districts come under either the yellow or green zone.

Of the fresh fatalities, Khordha accounted for 14 deaths (including 10 from Bhubaneswar) followed by 11 from Sundargarh, 9 from Angul, 8 from Dhenkanal, 5 from Jharsuguda, 4 each from Bargarh, Puri and Sambalpur, 3 from Kandhamal, 2 from Balangir and one each from Bhadrak, Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur, Nayagarh, and Nuapada districts.

The details of past deaths for which an audit process has been done and the cause of fatality was confirmed as COVID-19, the health authorities said while clarifying the rising death toll.

Around 52% of the total death toll has been recorded in the State in the past 58 days, thus indicating the disturbing fact of the doubling of the cumulative fatalities. As many as 2,949 Covid patients have succumbed to infection since 31 May at a daily average of almost 50 deaths while the cumulative death toll currently stood at 5,703. The surge in deaths had begun to emerge after the launch of the district-level audit for death recount.

Odisha has so far conducted over 1.57 crore sample tests, including 78,740 in the past 24 hours. The daily test positivity rate stands at 2.16 percent while the cumulative positivity of the samples tested stood at 6.18%.

Odisha has administered 1.56 crore doses of COVID vaccines while more than 26,000 pregnant women have been inoculated so far.

The State’s recovery rate currently stands at 97.61% while active cases account for 1.79% 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 4.42% 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 1.35% of the country’s Coronavirus deaths.