Bhubaneswar: Covid positive cases in Odisha continued to report over 10,000 cases every day since May 5 last but with a marginal dip in the number in the last three days.
Health and Family Welfare department sources said in the past 24 hours 10,031 new cases were reported from 30 districts which included 6623 from the quarantine centres and 3408 local contact cases.
The report of the last three days indicated that there has been a slight dip in the number of covid infections after the government imposed lockdown across the state on May 5 last to contain the second phase of the virus.
On May 7, the state recorded 11,807 covid positive cases which
declined to 10,635 on May 8 and on May 9 the number further reduced to 10,031.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said Odisha’s hard-earned experience and robust system of disaster management have helped the State contain the COVID-19 pandemic.
Experts are now suggesting that the Odisha Model of disaster management could be effective in tackling pandemics in the future, he added.
Mr Patnaik said that Facilitation Centers have been set up in all major hospitals and District Headquarter Hospitals to inform the family members about the health condition of the COVID-19 infected patients.
The State Government has provided the contact number of the centres on http:tatedashboard.odisha.gov.in portal for the benefit of all, he added.
Official sources said in the past 24 hours 17 Covid patients under treatment succumbed to the virus pushing the covid death toll in the state to 2197 while the covid tally surged to 5,44,873 with the detection of 10,031 new cases in the past 24 hours.
So far 4,47,863 covid infected people including 8541 on Sunday have been recovered and the active cases in the state now stood at 94,760.
As many as 27 of the 30 districts in the state reported more than 100 covid cases in the past 24 hours, eight of them registered over 400 cases. Only three districts-Gajapati, Kandhamal and Malkangiri, have registered less than 100 cases.
Khordha district continued to be at the top with 1326 new infection cases followed by Sundargarh ( 821), Cuttack ( 720 ), Puri(708), Angul (456_), Bargarh ( 450) Kalahandi ( 433) and Jharsuguda ( 418 ).
Four districts such as Khordha, Rayagada, Sundargarh and Kalahandi have reported three covid deaths each in the past 24 hours followed by 2 in Puri and one each in Angul, Bolangir and Dhenkanal district.
The state government has started vaccination for the age group of 18 ? 44 years in five municipal corporations where the positive rate is very high. These are Cuttack Bhubaneswar, Sambalpur, Rourkela and Berhampur.
State Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Pradeepta Mohapatra said the vaccination for the age group of 18-44 years would be conducted in other districts after the vaccine stocks improved.
The government, meanwhile, has approved government-sponsored vaccination centres in private hospitals which would be used as extension centres of the government for CVC for vaccination for the age group of 18- 44 years.
Mr Mohapatra said vaccines would be supplied to the private hospitals free of cost and the private hospitals are allowed to charge up to Rs 100 per dose as service charges.
The centre meanwhile, has sanctioned Rs 338.8 crore to Odisha in advance to combat the covid 19 pandemic as per the recommendation of the 15th Finance commission.
The fund, sources said, would be utilised by the Panchayati raj institutions for prevention and other mitigation measures in fighting