Five more in Odisha tested positive for Omicron variant ofCovid, tally rises to 14

Bhubaneswar: Five more persons , four of them returnees from abroad were foundinfected with the Omicron variant of covid 19 taking the total Omicron cases in the state to 14.
Official sources said the contact tracing of the people who have come in contact with thesepeople
were carried out and only one of them tested covid positive whose sample has been sent to the
Institute of Life Science(ILS), Bhubaneswar for genome sequencing.
Out of the five new Omicron cases, four had returned to the state from Qatar, Congo and UAE
while the other one had no foreign travel history but visited Raipur and Hyderabad in the recentpast.
Health and Family Welfare department sources said the health condition of all these five newOmicron patients is stable.
The first Omicron case was reported in the state on December 21 when two returnees from Qatarand Nigeria had tested positive for the Omicron variant of the Covid 19.
On December 23 two more children who had returned from Nigeria also tested positive for
Omicron variant and again on December 27 last four more people who had returned fromNigeria
and Dubai had found infected with Omicron variant.One more person who had returned fromDubai, also tested positive for Omicron variant talking the tally to nine in the state.
And now with the detection of five more people the total tally of Omicron variant in the state has
gone up to 14.
Meanwhile, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) and Cuttack Municipal Corportaion(CMC) have announced closure of all religious institutions for the public from December 31 to
January 2 next in their jurisdiction in a bid to prevent further spread covid.
However, all rituals will be performed in the religious institutions by the servitors in the absenceof
the devotees and public.

Health and Family Welfare department sources said in the past 24 hours 225 more people weretested covid positive in Odisha taking the total cumulative tally in the state to 10,54,606.
Out of 225 new infections, 132 were reported from the quarantine centres and 93 as local contactcases. Khordha district recorded the highest number of 87 cases followed by Sambalpur(23) ,Sundargarh (13),Balasore (12) and Cuttack(11).
In the past 24 hours only one covid death was reported form Khordha district pushing the totalfatalities in the state to 8458.
The active cases in the state stood at 1652 of which Khordha district alone accounted for 710
followed by Sambalpur (118) and Cuttack ( 102).
Sources said the recovery in the state surged to 10, 44,443 after 165 covid patients were cured
from the virus on Wednesday.
The test positivity rate(TPR) in the state rose to 0.36 percent on Thursday. Two districtsKhordha and Deogarh have reported test positivity rate at 1.6 percent and 1.1 percentrespectively while ten districts recorded zero test positivity rate and 18 other districts had thetest positivity rate below one percent.

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