National Health Mission (NHM) Director Shalini Pandit on Saturday said that out of the 37 COVID-19 active cases in the State, only two patients need hospital care while the rest 35 don’t require special medical attention.
Pandit said 10 more positive patients have recovered taking the total number of cured patients to 12 in the State. And more number of patients would also be discharged soon as only two out of the remaining 37 active cases need doctors’ attention.
“Rest 37 patients have no flu-like symptoms. We have kept them only as a preventive measure for their safety and as well as of the community. They don’t need hospital care,” she said.
She further said that out of the 50 positive cases, 80 per cent were asymptomatic. Hence, the virus can remain in a person’s body without any symptoms of cold, fever and cough. Keeping this in view, the State Government has taken steps to intensify the surveillance.
Temporary sample collection centres are being set up in schools across the State. The number of COVID-19 tests conducted in the State would be increased to over 1,100 per day, she informed.
Pandit further said, “People aged above 60 years are most vulnerable to the virus. Fortunately, Odisha has just four per cent of that age group infected with COVID-19. That’s good news.”
Meanwhile, the State Government on the day released the details of the two cases which were found positive late on Friday night. They were linked to a 45-year-old man from Madhusudan Nagar in Unit-IV of Bhubaneswar, who had tested positive for the virus earlier.
Official sources said the 49th COVID-19 case was a 35-year-old woman whereas the 50th case was a 23-year-old youth. Both are the close contacts of the 41st case.
Till now, 50 persons in the State have tested positive. Out of them, the number of active cases is 37 as 12 have recovered and discharged from hospitals while one died.