Bhubaneswar: Seven persons, six of whom recently returned from Gujarat and West Bengal, tested positive for COVID-19 in Odisha on Tuesday, taking the number of cases in the state to 176, an official said.
The number of active COVID-19 cases in the state now stands at 115.
Of the seven new cases, three hailed from Balasore, one from Ganjam, one from Rourkela in Sundergarh district, one from Jajpur district and another from Cuttack district, the official said.
The latest case was detected in Jajpur district with a 58 year-old man who returned from Kolkata testing positive. He was in quarantine after returning from the neighbouring state.
With this the total number of COVID-19 cases in Jajpur mounted to 53, the official said.
In Rourkela in Sundergarh district, a 49-year-old man tested positive for the deadly virus after he returned from Kolkata.
The new cases in Cuttack and Ganjam districts are of two people who recently returned from Surat in Gujarat.
Cuttack district had last reported a COVID-19 case on April 3 while Ganjam falls in the orange zone.
In Balasore district, the three new patients comprised two men aged 50 and 26 years and a 40-year-old woman. The two men had recently returned from West Bengal.
Contact tracing and follow-up actions are being undertaken in the three districts, the official said.
A total of 3,535 samples were tested for COVID-19 in Odisha on Monday, the highest in a day in the state, the official said. The Health Department has tested 44,663 samples so far.
Jajpur district has reported the maximum number of cases, followed by Bhubaneswar in Khurda district at 47, Balasore 24, Bhadrak 21 and Sundergarh 12.
Three positive cases have been reported from Ganjam district while two cases each have been reported in Cuttack, Jharsuguda, Kendrapara, Bolangir, Keonjhar and Kalahandi and one each in Puri, Dhenkanal, Deogarh and Koraput districts.
Sixty people have recovered from the disease. The state has reported only one coronavirus death — a 72-year-old man from Bhubaneswar who died on April 6.
A total of 226 people, both suspected and confirmed cases, are presently in hospital isolation.