The Covid-19 positive case tally crossed the 100-mark for the second consecutive day on Saturday with 120 persons testing positive for the virus in 20 districts and the State pool.
With this, the state’s total caseload surged to 3,38,719.
Of the new cases, 71 are quarantine cases and 49 local contacts.
Cuttack district continued to report the highest cases 26 for the third consecutive day followed by Sundargarh with 16, Mayurbhanj 15, Khordha 14 and Sambalpur 10.
Interestingly, all the 14 cases reported from Khordha belong to Bhubaneswar, out of which 13 are local contacts.
Besides, three cases were reported from the State pool.
Of the new cases, 71 are quarantine cases and 49 local contact cases. Currently, the number of active cases stood at 754 while the cumulative samples tested were 87,62,607.
Meanwhile, in view of resurgence of positive cases in some parts of the country, the Odisha Government has decided to scale up RT-PCR tests to more than 10,000 a day.
In this regard, the Health and Family Welfare Secretary Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra has written to all the district Collectors, civic bodies and CDMOs. As per decision, the RT-PCR tests would be increased and rapid antigen tests would continue as before.
Source said that only 20 to25 per cent of the Covid samples are being tested in Odisha which is lower than other States in the country. There are a total of 26 RT-PCR laboratories in the State, including 10 private laboratories.
Of the 16 laboratories, while seven are in medical colleges, the facility is available in Angul, Puri, Baleswas, Puri, Keonjhar, Institute of Life Sciences (ILS) and Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISER) to conduct RT-PCR testing.
The target has been set to conduct a maximum of 800 samples in the SCB Medical College, 600 in RMRC, 500 in Pandit Raghunath Murmu Medical College and 700 in MKCG and IISER.