Bhubaneswar: Congress candidate for bye-Poll to Pipili Assembly segment, Ajit Mangaraj, said on Saturday that he has tested positive for COVID-19.
Taking to Facebook, Mr.Mangaraj, after announcing that he is undergoing treatment for the viral disease, appealed to party activists to stay united and not pay heed to any rumor.
He also urged them to work hard and ensure the party’s victory in the by-election, scheduled to be held on April 17.
State’s COVID-19 tally mounted to 3,48,182 as the state registered this year’s highest single-day spike of 1,374 new cases on Saturday, a health official said.
Two fresh fatalities pushed the state’s coronavirus death toll to 1,926, he said.
Of the new cases, 812 were reported in quarantine centres, while 562 detected during contact tracing.
Sundergarh district recorded the highest number of fresh cases at 355, followed by Khurda (193), Nuapada (135), Sambalpur (77), Bargarh (59), Jharsuguda (52), Cuttack (51), Rayagada (47) and Kalahandi (45).
The state had reported 1,282 COVID-19 cases on Friday.
Two persons from Bolangir and Kendrapara succumbed to the infection, taking the death toll to 1,926, the official said.
Fifty-three other coronavirus patients have also died due to comorbidities, he said.
The state now has 7,003 active cases, while 3,39,200 people have recovered from the disease so far.
Odisha has tested over 93.38 lakh samples for COVID-19, including 33,996 on Friday, and the positivity rate stands at 3.73 per cent.
Amid reports of COVID-19 cases from the SCB College of Nursing in Cuttack, the district administration has directed the authorities to close the institute for an indefinite period, following which all the students have been asked to vacate its hostels by 5 pm on Saturday.
Bijay Panigrahi, Director, Family Welfare, said Odisha will receive 2.5 lakh doses of COVID-19 vaccine during the day, though the state had demanded 25 lakh shots to continue the inoculation process without any stoppage.
The vaccination process is likely to interrupt in some areas in the next two days as it will take around 24 hours to dispatch the vaccine shots to districts after receiving the consignment here, Dr.Panigrahi said.
The state now has a stock of around 1.26 lakh doses of ‘Covishield’ and 92,000 of ‘Covaxin’.
Taking to Twitter, the Health and Family Welfare Department said more than 40 lakh doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered to eligible beneficiaries in the past 70 days.
