Bhubaneswar: Odisha today registered the highest single-day spike of 4445 covid cases breaking all past records and four deaths.
Health and Family Welfare department sources said in the past 24 hours 4445 new cases including 2574 from the quarantine centres and 1871 local contact cases were reported from 30 districts. This included covid cases from the state pools also.
During the past 24 hours four covid patients of which two from Sundargarh district and one each from Jharsuguda and Keonjhar district succumbed to the virus taking the total covid toll in the state to 1948.
With the record number of covid cases, the total covid tally in the state surged to 3,72,703 with 3,46,134 recoveries. The active cases in the state shut up to 24,568 from a mere less than one thousand in last month.
Official sources said as many as 12 districts in the state reported over 100 new covid cases in the past 24 hours.
Sundargarh district again recorded the highest number of 722 cases in the past 24 hours followed by Khordha (587), Kalahandi (273), Cuttack ( 251), Sambalpur ( 241), and Jharsuguda (231).
Official sources said till midnight of April 18 the state conducted over 96 lakh tests of which 3,72,703 were found infected with the coronavirus. The positivity rate in Odisha stands at 3.87 per cent.
Meanwhile, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has closed the Lingraj temple 13th-century shrine, for the devotees after some servitors of the temple tested covid positive.
The BMC restricted the entry of the devotees into the temple till further order in the larger public interest and to contain the further spread of the virus. However, the daily rituals of the temple would be performed by the servitors.
The temple administration has also decided to observe the Ashokastami car festival without the participation of the general public. The local authority has announced that prohibitory orders under section 144 CrPc will be promulgated on the three km stretch of Ratha Road, the venue of the car festival, on April 20and April 24 for smooth conduct of the car festival and the return car festival.