Bhubaneswar: The Covid cases in Odisha crossed 8000-mark for the second time within the last three days while the virus claimed 14 lives in the past 24 hours.
Health and Family Welfare department sources said Covid cases, which soared to 8386 on April 28 last plummeted to 6988, again surged to 8681 on Friday, taking the total tally to 4,44,194 in the state.
For the first time, a record 14 Covid patients succumbed to the virus, pushing the Covid fatalities in the state to 2043.
The active cases in the state also rose to 61,698 while the recovery cases stood at 3,80,400 with 4679 people cured from the virus on Thursday.
Sources said as many as 19 districts in the state reported over 100 new cases in the past 24 hours of which nine districts recorded more than 400 new covid cases.
Khordha district registered highest number of 1408 cases, followed by Sundargarh (745), Cuttack( 570), Puri (514), Bolangir (459), Bargarh ( 423), Angul ( 419), Jharsuguda ( 411) and Sambalpur ( 410).
In the past 24 hours, three Covid patients each from Koraput and Sundargarh district and two each from Khordha and Raigad district passed away. One each died in Ganjam ,Kalahandi,Nabarangpur and Sambalpur district.
Keeping in view of the second surge of COVID-19, the Odisha government on Thursday announced to continue its earlier policy decision of providing financial assistance of Rs.50 lakhs to the next kin of the covid warrior who succumbed to Covid 19 while on duty.
The order clarified that only those who are not covered under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package: Insurance Scheme (PMGKP) would be eligible to receive the ex-gratia.
The government also decided to provide an incentive of Rs.1000 per month to each ASHA worker for the period from April to July for rendering active service and engaged in contract tracing, surveillance, containment measures and mobilizing people for Covid vaccination.
Last year, the state government had provided Rs 50 lakh ex-gratia to 110 Covid warriors who lost their lives fighting against the Covid-19.
Meanwhile, inoculation in the state suffered and several centres were closed for vaccination due to shortage of the vaccines.
The vaccination drive for the age group of 18 years to 44 years in unlikely to commence on May 1 due to weekend shut down in all the urban centres in the state.
The government has decided to close down the vaccination programme on Saturday and Sunday in view of a shut down imposed in the state.
There is least possibility that the vaccination for the third phase for the age group of 18 years to 44 years would commence on May 3 as the government is yet to receive any assurance from the vaccine manufacturers on supply of vaccines.
The state government had already placed orders for 3.77 lakh doses of covishield and 10.34 lakhs of covaxin doses for its 1.93 crore population in the age group of 18 years to 44 years.
In view of rapid rising of covid cases, the state government has asked the District Collectors, SPs and the CDMOs to monitor the health facilities in their respective areas and ensure that samples collected from the people are dispatched to the laboratory for test on the same day.
The district officials would make regular visits to the district headquarter hospital, covid hospitals to review and monitor the health care facilities.
The Sub divisional officers and SDPOs would visit the sub divisional hospitals while the BDOs and IIC would review the facilities in the community health centres and public health centres.