The public health experts in Odisha apprehending the likely strike of the third wave of COVID-19 in October said children might be more vulnerable to the third wave as adults, many of them, have been inoculated.

“The children in the 0-18 age group are likely to be infected on a larger scale than the infection rate in the first and second wave. But there is cause for getting alarmed as the state government has made elaborate arrangements for treatment of children, in case they are infected in large numbers”, Chief of the Directorate of Medical Education and Training (DMET), CBK Mohanty.

Meanwhile, the coastal State on Wednesday logged 887 COVID-19 fresh cases at 1.29% Test Positivity Rate (TPR) in the last 24 hours with the tally mounting up to 10,03,210, while the cumulative death toll reached 7,562 with 69 fresh fatalities, according to State’s COVID dashboard portal.

In the last 24 hours, the virus infection grew substantially by 41% in a worrying development in the State’s fight against COVID-19.

Of the infected persons, as many as 131 children contracted the virus infection in the last 24 hours. 9,613 persons have tested positive for COVID­19 in the past nine days while 1,260 persons in 0­-18 years have been found to be infected. Infection among children accounts for more than 13%. Around 1.35 crore children and adolescents need to be vaccinated in the State, according to official sources.

The coastal state now has 8,226 active cases, and 9,87,369 patients have so far recovered from the disease, including 1,035 in the last 24 hours.

The Khordha district reported the highest number of 323 new infections followed by Cuttack 119 and Balasore 56.

The Cuttack district reported the highest 25 deaths followed by 21 from Jagatsinghpur, nine from Dhenkanal, three each from Balasore and Khordha, two each from Angul, Ganjam and Puri, one each from Bhadrak and Keonjhar.

More than 63% of the total death toll has been recorded in the State in the past 86 days. As many as 4,806 Covid patients have succumbed to infection since 31 May at a daily average of over 55 deaths while cumulative death toll currently stood at 7,562. The surge in deaths had begun to emerge after the launch of the district-level audit for death recount.

Odisha has thus far conducted over 1.75 crore sample tests, taking into account 68,717 clinical examinations on Sunday. The cumulative positivity rate is at 5.7 percent and the case fatality rate at 0.75 per cent.

The State’s recovery rate currently stands at 98.42% while active cases account for 0.81% 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 2.56% of India’s total active cases. The number of cured patients accounts for 3.12% of the country’s total recovery. Odisha has so far reported 1.74% of the country’s Coronavirus deaths.