Most Omicron cases in Odisha are asymptomatic: Top Official

Sambad English Bureau Published On : Jan 3, 2022 at 11:45 AM

Bhubaneswar: Most of the Omicron cases in Odisha are asymptomatic in nature, said Health Services Director Bijay Mohapatra today.

Out of the 23 Omicron cases detected in the state yesterday, 19 are asymptomatic while others have mild symptoms. Omicron cases are now being identified locally, for which rapid transmission is likely, said Mohapatra.

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Though the variant is highly contagious, the severity caused by it to the infectee is low. Those returning from foreign countries are undergoing COVID-19 test in the state. If found COVID positive, the samples are being sent to the ILS, Bhubaneswar for genome sequencing to ascertain the variant of the virus, the official said.

He also advised people to maintain social distancing, avoid crowded places and adhere to COVID appropriate behaviour.

Odisha had yesterday registered the sharpest rise in Omicron cases as 23 more persons tested positive for the variant of COVID-19, taking the tally in the state to 37.

While 11 of them are returnees from Finland, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Dubai and Syria, 10 are local cases, and remaining two are contacts of Finland returnees.

Odisha had on December 21 reported the first case of Omicron with two foreign returnees (Nigeria and Qatar) testing positive for the variant.

As many as 424 persons, including 47 children below 18 years of age, tested positive for COVID-19 in Odisha during the last 24 hours.

Out of the 424 cases, 246 were detected in quarantine while 178 are local contact cases.

Khurda district reported highest 151 fresh infections, followed by Cuttack (66) and Balasore (29).

With this, the COVID-19 tally in the state reached 1055980 with 2355 active cases.

Below are district-wise figures of the new cases.

1. Balasore: 29
2. Bargarh: 5
3. Bhadrak: 1
4. Balangir: 6
5. Cuttack: 66
6. Deogarh: 4
7. Dhenkanal: 6
8. Ganjam: 3
9. Jagatsinghpur: 8
10. Jajpur: 6
11. Jharsuguda: 14
12. Kalahandi: 2
13. Kendrapara: 2
14. Keonjhar: 1
15. Khurda: 151
16. Koraput: 3
17. Malkangiri: 2
18. Mayurbhanj: 4
19. Nabarangpur: 5
20. Nayagarh: 5
21. Puri: 12
22. Rayagada: 2
23. Sambalpur: 22
24. Sonepur: 7
25. Sundargarh: 27
26. State Pool: 31