In what sends warning bells for the outbreak of the third wave, the State on Wednesday logged almost 79% jump in COVID-19 infections in the last 24 hours by reporting as many as 1,216 positive cases, the highest in the last four months.

The infection was almost doubled in the last 24 hours as on Tuesday the State had logged 680 COVID-19 cases. Monday’s tally stood at 424 cases.

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The disconcerting feature of today’s Covid trajectory lies in the fact that the test positivity rate (TPR) has soared to 1.7 per cent while as many as 187 infectees were children in the past 24 hours.

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 456 cases, accounting for almost 38% of the State’s cumulative tally of the day. The Khordha was followed by 166 in Sundargarh, 99 in Sambalpur and 80 in Cuttack. Khordha district also accounted for two COVID-19 deaths.

The new infections pushed the cumulative tally to 10,57,876 while 37 cases of Omicron mutant variants have been detected in the State so far, the health authorities said on Wednesday.

The State recorded two fresh fatalities today with the death toll reaching 8,466. The Test Positivity Rate (TPR) at 1.7% surpassed 1% for the second consecutive day. Of the new infectees, 187 are between the 0-18 years of age.

The Kandhamal district with no active case has turned covid-free zone while three more districts with single digit active case are on the verge of becoming infection-free territories.

The state currently has 3,981 active COVID-19 cases while 10,45,376 patients including 121 on Tuesday recovering from the disease.

As 1,216 samples gave positive results out of 68,878 samples tested on Tuesday, the Test Positivity Rate (TPR) stood at 1.7 per cent against the previous day’s 1.31%.

The State’s recovery rate currently stands at 98.81% while active cases account for 0.37% 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 2.61% of India’s total active cases. The number of cured patients accounts for 3.11% of the country’s total recovery. Odisha has so far reported 1.85% of the country’s Coronavirus deaths.

The States health authorities have so far administered 5,05,71,020 COVID-19 vaccine doses while 2,11,71,719 people out of 3.09 crore eligible adult population are fully vaccinated. Nearly 69% of the eligible population has so far received both the doses of vaccine.

Meanwhile 36 students of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya located at Zinc Nagar in Odisha’s Sundargarh district have tested positive for COVID-19 while six students of Saheed Laxman Nayak Medical College in Koraput have also tested positive.