Odisha’s COVID-19 caseload climbed to 7,98,699 on Friday at 11.26% Test Positivity Rate (TPR) as 7,729 more people tested positive for the infection, while 39 fresh fatalities pushed the coastal state’s coronavirus death toll to 2,912, according to Odisha’s COVID dashboard information updated at 8.48 am today.

The virus infection and test positivity rate has declined with the number of fresh infections dropping below 10,000 for the 9th consecutive day. The TPR, which hovered between 15 to 22 percent last month, dipped substantially in June in a comforting turn of events in State’s fight against the pandemic.

Meanwhile the active cases have dipped below one lakh mark consistently in June with daily recoveries breaching the virus infections. As many as 7,690 patients who were either home isolated or hospitalized recuperated from the disease in the past 24 hours.

As many as 3,43,092 COVID-19 positive cases were reported in the last 35 days at a daily average of 9,802 cases in the State while 871 have succumbed to the infections during the period with daily average death of 25.

As per the information posted at the COVID dashboard of Odisha government, 77 percent of the 30 districts are currently in the Red Zone category as the active cases in as many as 23 revenue districts have surpassed 1,000-caseload. While the Chhattisgarh-bordering Nuapada district has turned green with less than 500 cases, six districts- Jharsuguda, Sambalpur, Bolangir,Kandhamal, Gajapati and Malkangiri – come under Yellow Zone with less than 1,000 active cases.

Khordha district reported highest daily infections at 1,062 new cases followed by Cuttack district with 720 cases and Angul district with 449 new COVID cases while Mayurbhanj and Balasore reported 442 and 426 cases respectively.

As many as 39 fatalities were reported from 18 districts in the last 24 hours. While Khordha registered 6 deaths, 3 each died of the virus in Angul, Jharsuguda, Kalahandi, Rayagada and Sundargarh districts in the last 24 hours.

Odisha’s active cases now dropped below one lakh mark to reach 82,679, while 7,13,055 people have thus far recovered from the disease.

The state has tested over 1,20,40,830 samples for COVID-19 to date, including 68,604 on Thursday. Odisha’s overall test positivity rate stands at 6.63 per cent while TPR was recorded at 11.26% in the last 24 hours.

Odisha’s tryst with the pandemic had begun on 15 March when an Italy-returnee from Bhubaneswar had tested positive. It took 115 days for the State to breach the 10,000-mark while in 169 days the tally surpassed one lakh mark. On 15 May, Odisha’s caseload had crossed the six lakh mark. On 1 May this year, the State had recorded over 10,000 fresh cases for the first time on a day since the beginning of the pandemic in March last year.