Bhubaneswar: Odisha registered its highest single-day spike in COVID-19 cases on Monday as 4,198 more people, including state BJP chief Samir Mohanty, tested positive for the infection, a health official said.
The fresh infections have pushed the state’s coronavirus tally to 1,55,005.
Eleven more patients succumbed to the infection, taking the state’s coronavirus death toll to 637, the official said.
Odisha had reported its previous highest single-day spike of 3,996 cases on September 11, he said.
As many as 2,476 new cases were reported from different quarantine centres, while 1,722 people tested positive for the infection during contact tracing.
Khurda district, under which Bhubaneswar falls, reported the highest number of new cases at 758, followed by Cuttack (367) and Puri (310). Ten other districts registered more than 100 fresh infections each, he said.
Four fresh fatalities were reported in Cuttack, two each in Bolangir and Khurda and one each in Kandhamal, Nayagarh and Mayurbhanj districts, the official said.
The fresh infections have pushed the number of active cases in the state to 35,673, while 1,18,642 people have been cured of the disease so far, he said.
Fifty-three COVID-19 patients have died in the state due to other ailments so far.
The state has so far tested over 24.72 lakh samples for COVID-19, including 49,393 on Sunday, the official said.
Mohanty, in a Twitter post, said he has tested positive for the infection.
“Due to symptoms of Corona, I went for the test and found positive. I am doing well, but as per the advice of doctors, I got hospitalised and under treatment. I request all who have come in contact with me in the past few days to kindly isolate and conduct tests if necessary,” he tweeted.
Mohanty is the third senior BJP leader in the state, after Bargarh MP Suresh Pujari and Nilgiri MLA Sukanta Nayak, to contract the disease.