BHUBANESWAR: Sixty-five fresh cases of COVID-19 were detected in different districts of Odisha on Saturday, pushing the State’s tally to 737, according to the State government.
With this, the number of active cases in the State has increased to 568. As many as 166 persons have recovered and three have died so far.
Of the 65 new cases, 31 were detected in Jajpur district, 13 in Ganjam, six in Cuttack, four each in Puri and Kendrapara, three in Khordha and two each in Mayurbhanj and Nayagarh districts.
According to officials, 62 of the fresh cases were detected in quarantine centres set up for those returning from other States, while one with travel history and two contacts were in home quarantine.
A majority of those found positive on Saturday had returned from Gujarat and West Bengal recently. One had returned from Jharkhand, the government said.
The number of cases has been rising in Odisha in the past fortnight. Forty-eight new cases, including 47 returnees, were detected in different districts of the State on Friday.
Odia people who were working in other States or stranded during the lockdown have been returning by buses, trains and other vehicles. A total of 1,15,390 people had returned to the State by Friday.
The returnees are being quarantined in about 15,000 quarantine centres set up at the gram panchayat level across the State.
A total of 151 Odias had returned from Dubai in the first repatriation flight to the State on Friday. These returnees were screened at the airport in Bhubaneswar and put under quarantine as per the standard operating procedure laid down by the government.
The State, which has been adding more COVID-19 testing facilities, had tested a total of 86,140 samples at the eight existing laboratories till Friday, officials said.
